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Truman Capote Ethical Dilemma Essay

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Capote: Was an Ethical Dilemma Present?

Amanda Brown
University of Mary
NUR 551: Critique and Design of Nursing Research
Professor Janet M Lakomy, PhD, RN
March 25, 2023

Capote: Was an Ethical Dilemma Present?

Truman Capote was a United States novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. He is well-known for his work on In Cold Blood. In Cold Blood is a chilling account of the murders of four members of the Clutter family, committed in Kansas in 1959. Capote began researching the murders soon after they happened, and he spent six years interviewing the two men who were eventually executed for the crime (Kuiper, K, 2023). This research was initially a four-part series in The New Yorker. The movie Capote (2005) is a biography of …show more content…

During any kind of research, the researcher needs to follow ethics. The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research adopted a code of ethics in 1978. The commission issued the Belmont Report, which provided a model for many disciplinary guidelines (Polit, Beck, 2021 p. 132). Ethical guidelines were introduced after the time that Truman Capote did his research, so there were no guidelines to follow when conducting research. However, throughout this film, there are some noticeable questions that are related to how the research was conducted by Truman Capote that go against ethical standards. Ethics has always been important when conducting research. Research ethics govern the standards of conduct for scientific researchers. In conclusion, Institutional Review Boards were established as part of federal …show more content…

Capote?s research for his book clearly went against the Code of Ethics that is now in place for researchers. Many of the things that were done by Capote would not be allowed if brought to an ethics committee for review. He saw a story in the newspaper and ?ran with it? because he decided that he wanted to write a book. He was not honest with the individuals that he spoke to daily during his interviews for his reasons why he was there. He also was disrespectful when he went to the funeral home and opened each casket of the family members who were murdered.
Capote went on to write his book. It took him over four years to complete the entire thing. Its critical and popular success pushed Capote to the forefront of the emerging New Journalism, and it proved to be the high point of his dual careers as a writer and a celebrity socialite (Tandon, Bauer, 2022, September 23).?In closing of the movie, this was noted to be the last book that Capote wrote.
References
RIce, T. W., & Bernard, G. R. (1998-2023). Institutional Review Board. American Thoracic Society.

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