Pros And Cons Of Human Testing

“The ends justify the means mindset has been the impetus behind many a cruel medical or social experiment” (James Morcan). It seems that when it comes to human experimentation and the different aspects of it, there are a lot of individuals that will go the extra mile and even much the limits in order to get what they want out of their bodies of work. This is a good and bad thing. In terms of good, some of these experiments can help when it comes to making a breakthrough in a certain field of study. Especially if no harm is being caused to any one that is participating in these types of testing. On the other hand, as the quote above states, it has been seen throughout history how what may seem as a simple experiment can take a turn for the worst.

A human experiment is classified as, “…research involving human subjects…” (The Conversation). Whether it is using adolescents, teenagers, middle aged individuals, or the elderly, each one of these individuals all have differences that contribute and help researchers when it comes to certain tests that may need to be formed in order to get a set outcome. Many times, when it comes to human experiments people are more often than not injected or simple just given something for them to take in order to observe what happens to the individuals. These are the simplest forms of human experimentation. Often times, as ridiculous or unacceptable as some of these experiments may seem, unfortunately some of them have success. For example, when it comes to Edward Jenner the man who developed the smallpox vaccine, in his early workings he injected a child with some pus he had taken from a cowpox infection. Following up with the injection, he then proceeded to expose the child, “…to an infected carrier of smallpox” (The Conversation). Yes the trial helped with making a breakthrough, but it was also very risky considering he exposed a child to a very deadly disease.

The trials that took place were medical experiments that were done on a large number of prisoners, children, parents, and anyone that was in Germany during the times of the concentration camps. During this time, for the most part the targeted individuals were from the ethnic groups of Romani, Sinti, Soviet POWs, and Jews from all across Europe. In terms of freewill and having the option to choose whether or not to participate in an experiment as the volunteers in the Stanford prison experiment got to do, in this particular case people were being forced against their will to partake is many of the experiments. The reason for these tests was for Germany to have the edge on other countries, when it came to the advancement of German medicine, they did not care for the patients and had, “…total disregard for the patients suffering, or even their survival” (Jewish Virtual Library). Many of the experiments ended up causing more harm than good, especially to the ones it was being tested on. “Death, trauma, disfigurement or permanent disability” (Jewish Virtual Library), were many of the results from these experiments, which can also be called “medical torture”. One of many experiments carried out was the malaria trial, in which healthy inmates were infected by mosquitoes and after getting the disease the