Edward Jenner: The Renaissance Man

“Renaissance Man” is a term that portrays Edward Jenner better than his official title of a surgeon because he was not only a doctor, but also an innovator and a leader. He possessed the intelligence of a successful physician, the charisma of an influential leader, and the humanity of a kind and caring individual. Jenner’s journey through the discovery of vaccines, despite being ethically questionable at times, innovated the field of modern medicine and saved the humanity. Edward Jenner was born into a long-established family with considerable wealth. Although his father passed away when he was only six, he was blessed to have an older brother who brought him up with paternal love and care. Even during his primary education as a child, Jenner

The step “I am mindful” suggests that individuals “imagine endgame scenarios of the future consequences of any current practice” (Zimbardo 360). Jenner’s endgame scenario was that he would save people from the disastrous diseases as a consequence of his experiment. Imagining this scenario would have made Jenner’s ethical dilemma less difficult because he believed in himself that he would be protecting people in the end. Another step of the program, the “I am responsible” step, could have also been exercised in Jenner’s thought process and moral development of the dilemma. Zimbardo also states that “taking responsibility for one’s decisions and actions puts the actor in the driver’s seat” (Zimbardo 360). Despite being alone in the field of Immunology, Jenner took on the burden that his experiment could be unsuccessful. Jenner did not give in to the oppositions and resisted against them by being farseeing and willing to take responsibility for whatever outcome, whether good or

For example, “euphemistic labelling … is used widely to make harmful conduct respectable” (Bandura 292). By calling his experiment “pioneering research” instead of “human experimentation,” he alleviates the gravity of the ethical dilemma of experimenting on his gardener’s son. Also, Bandura states that “how behaviour is viewed is coloured by what it is compared against” (Bandura 293). Although Jenner’s experiment is highly unethical if scrutinized on its own, it is still viewed as a revelation because of “advantageous comparison” (Bandura 293). After Jenner, there had been continuous cases of human experimentation, many of which are much more barbaric and cruel than that of Jenner. For example, the soldiers and prisoners of the Second World War were treated in such inhumane ways that it led to the establishment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights shortly after the war. Compared to what was performed in the Nazi concentration camps and the Japanese Unit 731, Jenner’s experiment is considered a valuable contribution to Science rather than a dark moment in history of Science. As a result of Bandura’s mechanisms of moral disengagement, the human experimentation that he performed is absolved of its ethical dilemmas and remembered as one of the most significant scientific