Ethics of medicine. Do you know what that means?
- Diana Abbott-Sprinkle
- Mar 19, 2022
- 3 min read
Medical Ethics in a nutshell = Hippocratic oath which in fewer words is interpreted to do no harm. Principles, beliefs, and values to guide clinician to the right decisions.
Part of medical ethics are derived from an accepted standard worldwide on carrying out human experimentation is the result of judgment by the war crimes tribunal at Nuremberg in 1947. It requires voluntary informed consent. Informed consent is when the person understands risk and benefit of any procedure while maintaining bodily autonomy (right to choose). This is considered a standard of medical ethics. Experiments are to be conducted avoiding harm and a person can exit an experiment at any time. The clinician is to terminate the experiment if injury, disability, or death. This is a result of clinicians performing lethal experiments on prisoners in concentration camps in Germany under rule of Hitler.
How about some US History now? The Tuskegee study started in 1932 (prior to the Nuremberg code) which took 600 African American males both without and with syphilis offering free exams, healthcare, and burial insurance. In 1943, penicillin became and is still the treatment for syphilis; however, the gentlemen in this study were not offered/did not receive treatment. During the 1960s, a researcher identified and expressed concern regarding unethical experimentation which was dismissed. That researcher leaked the information which led to a second review which ultimately led to the end of the study. Of 600 participants - 128 died from disease or complication of disease, 40 spouses had been infected, and 19 children infected at birth. In 1972, the study was published and by 1973 a class action lawsuit settled out of court awarding 10 million to the participants & their family. In 1975, widows and their children were added to the program for health and treatment. The US government issued a formal presidential apology in 1997. The last experiment survivor died in 2004 and the last widow in 2009 while the children have ongoing treatment.
While there may be times and situations that experimentation are appropriate, we should always guard our health and do what we feel is right for us. Many choose experimental medicine when all other choices have failed, but go in to that situation knowingly. There are times when medications are used for off label uses, which isn't necessarily experimental but having a desired side effect. There are also experiments that collect data like for new products. Recognize that those new products are usually used on an isolated population and studied in similar test subjects to improve disease processes.
Science. The fail safe answer to drive compliance. Science is questioned every day. Some things have
been tried over and over, but most things in science are theory not law. Theory is a PLAUSIBLE or scientifically ACCEPTABLE general principle; a belief; an idea/hypothesis; unproven assumption; abstract thought; analysis of a set of facts as defined by Merriam Webster. Scientific law is something that has been tried over and over produce same or similar results such as the law of universal gravitation. There are less than 10 scientific laws (4 or 5 depending on resource), everything else is theory. It's part of the scientific process and experimentation is part of how that is accomplished.
Please take a moment to consider any treatment along with its risks and benefits for you. Ultimately, you have the right to choose. If something is brand new and you don't feel comfortable with trying then make that choice with the full understanding and accepting full responsibility of that choice.
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