DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Bioethics


     Mention anything with the word 'ethics' in it to any of your friends and they are quickly reminded of the long, boring and compulsory classes they had to take in high school. Surprisingly, I found Bioethics, a class offered by Dr. Bettica every other spring semester, to be mentally engaging. Each week we would discuss about moral and ethical dilemmas that a doctor, scientist or anyone who works in the field of biology could face or had to face through interesting hypothetical and/or real scenarios. Students were required to hand in weekly journals and four scientific papers. My works have been posted below. 

 

Journal 8
Henock Tsegaye
Prof. Bettica
Live Cancer cell injections
          The very thought of injecting live cancer cells into a living breathing human being, whether healthy or chronically ill, is sickening for most individuals. But to the doctors and researchers of the Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, it is just another routine medical research. What’s more, the researchers did not even care to notify the patients that they are being experimented on, let alone get their informed consent. And the doctors’ reasoning is that informing the patients is unnecessary due to the innocuous nature of the experiment. Some doctors even dared to say they knew what is best for their patients, hence hold the power to make decisions on their behalf even if it might be contrary to the patients’ wishes. This begs the question then, is it ethical to withhold information from test subjects no matter what or how important the research might be?
           If you are looking for the answer to that question, look no further because the answer is a definite ‘no’. The aim of the research is intended to have a better understanding of how the body’s immune system reacts to cancer cells, which is noble and of paramount importance in the fight against cancer, however, that doesn’t give them the right or the green light to go ahead and use people as guinea pigs. Quite frankly, what was covertly done in the Jewish chronic Hospital reminds me of the gross human rights violations that took place in the concentration camps of the Second World War era. Not to mention, the complete disregard of the Hippocratic Oath, which the same doctors who tried to induce cancer in healthy (cancer-free) patients pledged to save lives, do no harm and refrain from administering fatal injections.
           For six weeks, twenty two patients were given small injections containing potent cancerous cells at two sites-thigh and arm. Then, doctors performed check-ups and blood tests to see the tumor grow in its host. And, all this time, the patients were tricked into thinking that the tests were simple skin tests. When questioned about deceiving patients, Chester Southam, one of the doctors involved shamelessly said, ‘You ask me If I obtained permission from our patients before doing studies. We do not do so at Memorial or James Ewing Hospital since we now regard it as a routine study, much less dramatic and hazardous than other routine procedures such as a bone marrow aspiration or a lumbar puncture.’( Murphy 2003). Mind you, the doctors are conducting research because they don’t know what the potential consequences of this experiment are, and yet, they justify their actions banking on an assumption that the cancerous injection is harmless to humans. Luckily, there were no causalities since the patients’ bodies rejected the cancer cells. But what if they actually were successful in inducing cancer? I guess that would be one important scientific breakthrough and twenty two dead patients.
            In conclusion, the Jewish chronic hospital incident is a prime example as to why there should be strict research ethics and guidelines set in place. Above all, doctors, out of all people, should value the lives of their patients and should not withhold information from them regardless of the type of research.
Work cited
Murphy, Timothy. ‘Live cancer cell injection’. Case studies in biomedical research ethics.Cambridge, MIT press 2004.

 

Journal 13
Henock Tsegaye
Prof. Bettica
The Tuskegee syphilis studies
           The Tuskegee syphilis studies are by far the most blatant and outrageous display of racism, human rights violation and unethical misconduct. These clandestine medical researches were conducted on 623 unsuspecting African Americans from Macon Country, Alabama, in hopes of better understanding the course and progression of a sexually transmitted disease, syphilis. The doctors lured their test subjects (preys) using offers of free medical examination and blood tests. Unbeknownst to them, the patients were about to become lab rats for the doctors and human petridishes for the syphilis bacteria.
For years, the doctors and researches scrupulously examined these patients, noting how the disease progressed differently depending on race and how it gradually degenerates various organ systems of the body such as the cardiovascular and the nervous systems. Worried about their deteriorating condition, the patients kept going back to the same doctors that gave them the syphilis in the first place, hoping to be cured. Kill or cure? The doctors were there to kill. In fact, the doctors and researchers made sure that no other physician intentionally or accidentally treats them.
             What is seen here is the utter disregard for the value of life and research ethics. So many things were done wrong in this study, but the ones that stand out from the rest are the lack of an informed consent. Not that anyone in his right mind would agree to such a thing, but at least the doctors could have told them the truth instead of deceiving them and their families. The second immoral act was the fact that this experiment targeted a certain race, African Americans. And thirdly, the way how the physician conspired together to deny these people of any medical attention from anywhere else is a stain that will forever tarnish the name of the medical society and the scientific community. This goes to show that people dressed in lab coats and scrubs can’t always be trusted as life-savers, especially those don’t follow the Hippocratic oath.
Work cited
Murphy, Timothy. ‘Live cancer cell injection’. Case studies in biomedical research ethics.Cambridge, MIT press 2004.

 

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.