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Explain The Three Basic Ethical Principles That Are Meant To Protect Human Subjects During Research

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According to Mitchell & O’shea (2003), scientific research has created some considerable social gain but in addition to this fact, it has also raised some worrying moral questions. The Belmont report basically expounds on the three principles that are meant to address ethical issues that affect human subjects during research. Explains that the three basic ethical principles that are meant to protect human subjects during research include: Respect for others, Beneficence, and Justice.
A. Basic ethical principles of research
• Respect for others
Mduluza (2013) explains that the principle of respect for other places emphasis on treating individuals as independent agents and also making sure that these independent persons are protected. The level of respect accorded to independent individuals depends on the risk of harm as well as the possibility of gain. The conclusion that any person lacks independence ought to be occasionally reevaluated and will differ in diverse situations.
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The research involved six hundred African-American men, four hundred of whom were injected with syphilis (Field, 2004). They were later monitored for forty years till 1972. Although a confirmed cure became accessible in the 1950s, the research was prolonged up to 1972 with partakers being deprived of treatment. After the death of many subjects, the research was stopped in 1973 due to mounting pressure from the public.
Declaration of Helsinki
In the year 1964, the World Medical Association introduced recommendations guiding health practioners in biomedical studies involving individual subjects. The assertion governs global research ethics and spells out rules for "research integrated with medical care" as well as "non-therapeutic study." The Helsinki Declaration was later amended from 1975 to 1996 and it finally became the basis for the contemporary high-quality Clinical practices.
National Research Act (1974

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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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The Tuskegee syphilis study was conducted in Alabama by the U.S. Public Health Service to study how untreated syphilis would progress by using poor African-American men who were being told they would be receiving free medical care. Subjects were not made aware of the disease and even after penicillin was found to cure syphilis, the men remained untreated by researchers. The failures of this study led to more protections being set for participants of clinical studies. The study in part lead to the Belmont Report and Institutional Review Boards developing to protect human subjects. Informed consent, communicating diagnoses, and reporting test results became a requirement in

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The Tuskegee Syphilis Study had lots of controversy over the 1900´s. The study happened in a racist and poor time period between 1932 and 1972. It included 600 African American men that were infected with Syphilis. It was conducted in rural and poor Tuskegee, Alabama. The test was to see if African American males responded to Syphilis differently than white males.

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In contrast, some proponents of the PHS decision may argue that the study provided valuable insights into the natural progression of syphilis and informed subsequent medical practices. They contend that the lengthy nature of the study provided a unique opportunity to observe the disease’s evolution over time, including its various stages, which may not have been possible by other means. However, while acknowledging these potential contributions, it is essential to recognize that the purported benefits of the Tuskegee Study must be weighed against its profound shortcomings and the harm inflicted upon its participants. The knowledge gained from the study could arguably have been obtained through ethically sound research methods that prioritize the well-being of participants. The ends cannot justify the means when the means involve the violation of ethical principles and the promotion of harm and injustice.

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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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Patients could have been participating in scientific research without even knowing it! In 1979, The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research was published by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. The report was a series of laws and ethical issues for the use of humans in research. The report discusses how human research should have respect for persons involved. The test subjects should be treated as autonomous agents, and those who don't have that power (such as people with disabilities) are entitled to protection.

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Those who were chosen for the study received rides to the Tuskegee University Clinic, free meals and medical treatment. To make the ‘story’ more believable, the participants were given ‘placebos’, which were harmless pills used for new testing. When the cure for syphilis was connected to the newfound drug, penicillin in 1945, researchers would not offer the drug to the participants of the

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The Tuskegee experimental study, which was carried out for a total of forty years from 1932 to 1972, remains one of the biggest and indeed one of the most disgusting scandals in the history of American medicine. More than 400 black men died in Alabama as public officials and doctors watched (Brandt, 1978). The Tuskegee scandal was a scientific experiment which was done using unethical ways and methods that in the end did not result in the production of new information on syphilis. The cure of the subjects who participated in the study was withheld without their knowledge, and consequently, many people died while others were left with permanent disabilities. Newborns were not spared either, and many of them were infected with congenital syphilis.

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In order to have a correct understanding of syphilis’ development, the USPHS ensured that the subjects did not receive treatment from other sources. This inhumane experiment lasted for fifty years until the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific affairs appointed an Ad Hoc Advisory Panel to review the study. Soon, it was revealed to the public that the victims did not receive adequate information to provide informed consent. The Panel also discovered that researchers did not offer the victims treatment even when penicillin became the cure for syphilis in 1947. The doctors

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In addition to this misinformation, patients were not provided with a way out of the study, effectively dooming them to a life without treatment for the disease. This, of course, contradicts the principles of non-maleficence, as the patients were made to suffer with their ailment throughout the study, even though they could have been easily treated. Although Penicillin was the standard treatment for syphilis by the mid-1940s, participants’ in the Tuskegee Study were denied access to it (Walker, C. (2009). The study infringes on the principle of justice in major aspects.

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Furthermore, the study subjects were not provided with the known treatment for syphilis, penicillin, when it was discovered to be an effective treatment. The conduction of the experiment was halted in 1972 after public outcry, however, by that time, it was too late for many of those who participated in the experiment. By then, 128 of the participants had passed away from syphilis-related complications and 40 of their wives had contracted the sexually transmitted disease. In 1974, two years after the experiment, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) filed a lawsuit on behalf of those impacted by the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment. The lawsuit resulted in the United States government paying ten million dollars to the remaining participants of the experiment and their families along with free health-related services.

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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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