By Darsh Mirchandani
At the core of human achievement lies the scientific advances that have been made over the course of millennia. In the modern era, scientific progress has been rapid, with each new discovery being more groundbreaking than the last. With these new advancements, it becomes imperative that scientists ask, “Should I?” instead of just “Can I?”
In the last decade alone, there have been numerous instances of unethical scientific practices. Examples of this behavior include ivermectin studies, a study on children with asthma and the extraction of liver samples from veterans. In each of these cases, the straying from ethical standards occurred as a result of a lack of oversight, or overzealous scientists who were willing to forsake their morality in the name of science.
In the ivermectin studies, people were given the treatment “without proper consent or appropriate ethical protections.” There were also incarcerated individuals who suffered serious side effects from the treatment, supposedly given to them without their knowledge.
In the study of children with asthma, the experimental sample was a group of vitamin D deficient children. Half of these children were given a placebo, which meant that they were given no vitamin D for their deficiency. This directly caused nine bone fractures. The scientists who conducted the study justified this by saying the kids were no worse off then they would have been without the study, which is simply not reason enough. By willfully ignoring the risk that the placebo posed to the children, the scientists demonstrated the pinnacle of unethical behavior. These scientists fully deserve to suffer some consequences, especially when considering how other similar experiments rejected the use of a placebo, as it was unethical.
Many veterans in San Diego were also victims of scientists who acted without ethics in mind. In 2016, veterans had samples of their liver extracted in medically unnecessary procedures that were forced upon them. The veterans were not even told that the sample would be used for research. The San Diego Veterans Affairs department refuses to accept any wrongdoing and has not pulled any studies that used data from the samples in question.
There are also examples of scientific experiments that are more ethically ambiguous. At the forefront of these experiments are attempts to clone living animals. Recently, ReTro was the first cloned rhesus monkey to reach adulthood. However, with this milestone, we are reminded of how gruesome the journey was along the way. In 2018, researchers attempted to clone long-tailed macaques, but of the sixty surrogate mothers, only two babies survived birth. Every single one of us, scientist or not, should ask, “Why are we doing this?” Even the experts cannot provide a reason. Alan Trounson, who is a stem cell scientist at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research admitted that cloned monkeys are not in high demand for research.
Source by Suha Tasfia
Science continues to see unethical experiments, particularly in the field of cloning.
Not all hope is lost for the future of morality in science. As New Hyde Park Memorial educates the next generation of scientists, we must take it upon ourselves to ensure that every student understands how to apply the scientific method ethically. According to a poll of NHP science teachers, 100% believe that high school students should be taught how ethics relates to science, while 87.5% believe that students would benefit from such lessons.
It is time we learn for more than just an exam. Students should be taught for their possible future careers. I propose that we standardize the teaching of ethics all throughout the school. Every single student should be taught ethics when they take Living Environment, ensuring that no student is left without a basic understanding of how to experiment ethically.
Unethical science is a clear issue that looms over the future of humanity. As long as we strive to improve our technology or understanding of reality, we will have to deal with those who are willing to go to any extreme for the sake of knowledge. However, by teaching students ethics, we can stop this trend of unethical behaviors and support the next generation of scientists .