Ethics Violations in Human Research throughout History
Ethics are commonly viewed asĀ norms for conduct and how we determine right from wrong. In human research, these ethics are the guidelines under which we evaluate our work and how it affects people.
Ethics review boards are established to evaluate the ethics of a research protocol. While not comprehensive, below is a list of ethics violations that led to ethical guidelines such as those established in the Belmont Report.
Please note that reading through these examples will cause discomfort and unease.
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- 1846: Gynecological procedures tested onĀ enslaved women without anesthetic
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- 1932: Start of theĀ Tuskegee experimentsĀ withholding established syphilis treatments from black men
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- 1939:Ā NurembergĀ atrocities committed during WWII
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- 1939:Ā Unit 731Ā illegal testing of chemical and biological weapons on civilians
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- 1980s: Blood donated from theĀ Nuu-chah-nulth tribeĀ and theĀ Havasupai tribeĀ was used by multiple research institutions without informed consent ofĀ how extensively their DNA would be used
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- 1990s: Costa Rica used as an unregulatedĀ pharmaceutical testing ground for infant and children treatments
- 2005: Private institutions are beneficiaries of amassing the worldās largest bank of indigenous blood and database of human origins and migration,Ā all at the expense of indigenous peoples
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- 2015: EthnographerĀ refuses to provide crucial information in search for murdererĀ andĀ potentially engaged in illegal activitiesĀ under the guise of āresearchā
I update this list as I receive additional examples. If you have an example to add to the list, please email me a link to the violation with a brief, one or two sentence summary.