Short Answer Questions
- What was the Tuskegee syphilis study?
- What is the difference between a control group and a test group?
- Why were the initial studies of the HIV-inhibiting treatment Zidovudine stopped as soon as it was discovered that it reliably produced a 2/3 reduction in congenital HIV transmission?
For Further Discussion
- Ethics behind Tuskegee. Tuskegee was among the darker episodes in the history of medical research.
- Had you heard of the Tuskegee experiment before? What is you reaction to it?
- Had you heard of any other government experiments on unwitting participants? Reactions?
- Say as specifically as you can which parts of Tuskegee you take to be most objectionable.
- Think now about the ethical frameworks that we have considered in this course: utilitarianism, deontology, and the Belmont report principles like Do no harm, Autonomy, and Justice. How would the permissibility of the Tuskegee study be characterised in terms of each of these frameworks?
- HIV-Testing in underprivileged societies. Treatments like Zidovudine have been shown to significantly reduce the replication of the HIV virus. But a controversy has arisen out of its continued study in developing countries.
- Had you heard about the HIV testing controversy? What is your reaction to it?
- Had you heard of the lead-testing controversy in Baltimore? What is your reaction to that?
- What are the analogies between either of these studies and Tuskegee? What are the disanalogies?
- What (if any) are the possible benefits of the continued study of Zidovudine?
- Explain what (if anything) you take to be most objectionable to the continued study of this treatment in underprivileged countries.
- Medical studies are normally conducted with a particular goal. What examples of goals (if any) do you think would be acceptable for a study being conducted in underprivileged societies when it is no longer ocurring in more privileged ones?
- The Kass Guidelines. Remind yourself of the 7 guidelines suggested by Nancy Kass for the regulation of research on the underprivileged.
- Kass takes the most important guideline to consider before allowing someone to do research on the underprivileged is a strong track record of implementing improvements (Guidelines 2 and 3). Do you agree with her that this is the most important thing?
- Are any of her other guidelines that you take to be more or less important than the others?
- Going through each of the guidelines that Kass proposes, are there any that you take to be inappropriate for determining when someone can do research on underprivileged societies?
- Are there any guidelines that you think might be missing from the list?
- How (if at all) could such guidelines effect the future of HIV research?
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