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Ethical Principles In The Belmont Report Essay

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NU310_Unit4_AssignmentWorksheet 1. Discuss what ethical principles in the Belmont Report were violated during the medical experiments cited in the article. (20 pts) The ethical principles in the Belmont Report that were violated were respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. Dr. Sims’ violated respect for persons when he performed surgeries on black slave women without use of anesthetics and treated them as anything but human. As a doctor, Dr. Sims pledged to do no harm, which he never upheld because he caused bodily harm to the women. He chose his patients based on their race and status in the society, which was unjust. The respect for persons and beneficence principles had been violated by many Southern hospitals when they only treat blacks because these …show more content…

Although some of the subjects agreed to be participants, they never knew or had not been informed of what the study was about. The government agency deliberately withheld life-saving medications to the subjects when such medication became available (Grove et al., 2015). The disturbing part was that the government agency continued their research knowing that it was unjust and inhumane, and even published results of the study for people to read. Americans condemned the acts of the Nazi Germans to the Jews, yet they committed this experiment to the unknowing African Americans. The African American men used for the syphilis study were considered vulnerable because these men were susceptible to attack or physical harm due to their race. Aside from that, some of the men didn’t even know they were participants of the study due to the racial discrimination of the US Public Health Service agency (Grove et al., 2015). What makes Americans better than the Nazi Germans? It was only when the public clamored about the injustice and inhumane acts of the study that the government stopped their research (Grove et al.,

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This experiment, conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service, was intent to study the natural progression of syphilis in African American male population. The study participants voluntarily participated in the study but the researchers did not properly inform the participants on the availability of treatment or the risks of the disease if untreated. To make the matter worse, the participants were deliberately led to believe that they were receiving treatment from the Public Health Service for free, while the actual treatment was being withheld to achieve the purpose of the research. In today’s point of view, it is surprising that even the federal agency did not respect the dignity of human rights for the sake of research. In Henrietta’s era, even the federal agency did not follow the proper informed consent procedure, and a prestigious institution like John’s Hopkins did not have any regulations or office such as Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to govern their research protocols to protect human subjects and their rights.

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Henrietta Lacks, the “Patient” HeLa cells made history beyond polio vaccines and outer space experiments. In Rebecca Skloot’s bestseller, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” HeLa cells went beyond just the successful research, cures, and treatments - they told the story of the Lacks family, and the unethical behaviors in the medical field of the 1950s. Henrietta Lacks was treated as a research subject, rather than just as a patient. Her physicians unethically withheld information relating to informed consent, and uses of her biospecimen, while sharing her private information. They ignored her rights of voluntary choice, disrespected her confidentiality, and lacked communication with both her, and her family, discriminating against her race.

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In Tuskegee, Alabama a group of men were chosen for an experiment involving the observation of how syphilis occurs in black men and its long term non-treated consequences. At the time of the experiment, the only treatment that was available was a heavy metal therapy; however, the scientists believed it was doing more harm than good. Therefore, they did not inform the men about the treatment and distracted them with basic incentives like hot meals and transportation. When penicillin, a cure for syphilis, was discovered the doctors made the decision to shield the cure away from the men. This is proof that scientists are

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Scientific research has undergone a transformation from knowing little about cells to experimenting on the cells and advance in medicine. The fascination to discover the unknown has triggered scientists to unconsciously over-step ethical boundaries. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot (2010) elaborates on the legal unethical practices in 1951 in the United States and the standard medical practices during the Jim Crow era. The policies and regulations have structurally created disparities among the African American population leading to skepticism towards the healthcare system.

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The Tuskegee study of Untreated Syphilis began in 1932, mainly designed to determine the history of untreated latent syphilis on 600 African American men in Tuskegee, Alabama. 201 out of 600 men were non-syphilitic just unknowingly involved in the study as a control group This study is known to be “the most infamous biomedical research study in the U.S history”. Most of these men had never visited a doctor and they had no idea what illness they had. All of the men agreed to be a participant thinking they were being treated for “bad blood” and plus they were given free medical care and meals.

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It has now been a quarter of a century, and yet the images and heartache that still evolve when the words "Tuskegee Syphilis Study" are brought up, still haunts people around the world and touches upon many professionals such as social workers, medical examiners, and so forth. Sometimes people hear about this disgusting human experiment in a highly visible way directed to the entire country as an example of what we as a country and people, in general, should not do. This occurred when the study first made national news in 1972, when President Clinton offered a formal apology, or when Hollywood actors star in a fictionalized television movie of the story. On the other hand the audience may become fainter: kept alive only by memories and stories told in the African American community, in queries that circulate over the world wide web and radio talk shows, or even in courses such as this one being taught by social workers, historians, sociologists, or bioethicists. This is neither the first nor the last unethical human experiment done under the human study for the medical purposes umbrella, basically stating it is ok to sacrifice a few people in the name of medical research.

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1. List the major ethical principles discussed in the Belmont Report and why they are important to subject participating in research? Include in your discussion 4 specific benefits and 4 specific risks to participants/subjects of research. Give an example for each benefit and risk. • Basic Ethical Principles: 1.

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Furthermore, we look back on these experiments as a reminder of how important these rules are. The dreadful atrocities shown and conducted by the Nazi doctors in concentration camps serve as a reminder and deathly warning of the importance of maintaining an ethical moral throughout medical

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The Belmont Report was created in 1947 and was created to attempt to outline the basic ethical principles and guidelines that would help answer ethical issues among humans. The three basic principles that make up the Belmont report are respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. The first ethical principle in the report, respect for persons, is defined by treating autonomous individuals as autonomous persons and to protect individuals with diminished autonomy. This means that individuals should be able to make their own, voluntary decisions about their well being and what happens to them. Beneficence principle is to indicate maximize possible benefits and minimize possible harms, meaning the interests of the participants should be given

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The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research created the Belmont Report Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research. The Belmont Report sets forth the basic ethical principles required for research involving human subjects. This post explains the three key principles of the Belmont Report that include respect for persons (autonomy), beneficence, and justice. Respect for Persons Respect for persons incorporates at least two ethical convictions: first, that individuals should be treated as autonomous agents, and second, that persons with diminished autonomy are entitled to protection.

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Foremost, the respect for persons that each individual should be treated with autonomy was ignored. There was a lack of respect for autonomy since there was no documented informed consent and the study used a vulnerable group of subjects. Patients were also deceived in that they were getting a skin test. The study “withhold information necessary to make a considered judgment” (Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1979, p. 4). No one should consent to be a research participant without being informed of the risks and benefits of that involvement, and in this case, the risks and the benefits of the procedure were explained to the patients.

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The study would ultimately prove that everyone, no matter the color of their skin, is equal when it comes to the disease of syphilis. The intention behind manipulating the men was not for the greater good of society, but instead was for the greater good of Dr. Brodus and Miss Evers. Although the actions of Dr. Brodus and Miss Evers prove to be unethical, I also find the actions to be unprofessional. Miss Evers should have informed the men of the severity of the disease, as well as how the disease is passed from one individual to another. They failed to inform their patients of many of the risks that came along with the disease.

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The experiment was executed well. Yet, there are unethical practices happened during the experiment. First, the participants were not fully informed about the experiment. The researchers did not explain to the participants the processes in conducting the experiment. The participants were not informed that they would be arrested by cops in their homes.

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Someone who has not read the Belmont Report may misunderstand the intent of the researcher that must follow the principle of beneficence. They might think that the designers of the research and may hide and modify the experiment design for the design plan to pass. However, that is the opposite of the purpose of the Belmont Report. He or she will need to understand that the origin of this report was from lack of transparency in a research experiment that brought tremendous harm to its participants. (The experiment was the Space Shuttle Challenger accident in 1986.)

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This study was referred to as the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis

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