Question: Read the case on page 72 of your textbook then answer the questions posed …
- One requirement of the Tuskegee study was that the subjects not receive available treatment for a
debilitating disease, a clear violation of normal medical practice. Would any study involving human
subjects that violated normal medical practice necessarily be unethical? Discuss
- The Tuskegee syphilis victims were not well informed about the study and in some cases were
deliberately misinformed about the nature of the study in which they were participants. A basic guideline
for human subject research, specified in both the Nuremberg Code and the Belmont Report is the
requirement of informed
consent. What would have constituted informed consent in the case of the Tuskegee Study? If such
informed consent had been obtained from the subjects, would this remove all questions about whether the
Study was ethical?
- Eunice Rivers, the African-American nurse who played a vital role by befriending the Tuskegee Study
participants and assuring their cooperation has justified her support for the project in terms of the fact
that the attention that she and the other medical staff gave to the men was more than a non-enrolled, poor,
Macon County resident was likely to receive. If you had been in her place, do you think you would have
come to the same conclusion with regard to the ethical choices available to you? What approach to ethics
did she embrace here? Explain
- Ordinarily, one would not think of the media as the proper instrument for enforcing public morality.
They had that role here, but should they have? Explain your answer
- In experiments on infants, it is obviously impossible to obtain the informed consent of the subject. This is
also true in experiments on senile individuals. Does this mean that ethical considerations preclude using
such subjects in any experiment? Discuss
Sample Solution