Experimenting on Children A doctor-researcher in residence at a private institut

Question

Experimenting on Children
A doctor-researcher in residence at a private institution for children with intellectual disabilities discovers that the children in one of the dormitories have dysentery, whereas those in the other dormitories do not. She decides to experiment with the children, both to see what has caused this particular phenomenon and to study the effects of dysentery and its various cures upon children in general. She sets up a scientific study with control groups (in which some students receive medication and some do not), and part of her experiment involves infecting healthy children with dysentery germs. The institution for which she works has a long waiting list, and the doctor takes advantage of this, admitting only those children whose parents will sign a release allowing her to conduct experiments upon them.

What are the ethical implications of what the doctor is doing?

Should such experimentation be allowed? Why, or why not?

Explanation / Answer

1) What are the ethical implications of what the doctor is doing?

Ans. Following could be the ethical implications for the doctor:

(i) Informed consent: Whenever possible investigators should obtain the consent of participants. In practice this means it is not sufficient to simply get potential participants to say “Yes”. They also need to know what it is that they are agreeing to. In other words the psychologist should, so far as is practicable explain what is involved in advance and obtain the informed consent of participants.

Participants must be given information relating to:

(ii) Debriefing: After the research is over, the participant should be able to discuss the procedure and the findings of the research with the psychologist. They must be given a general idea of what the researcher was investigating and why, and their part in the research should be explained.

As explained by Harris in 1998, “The purpose of debriefing is to remove any misconceptions and anxieties that the participants have about the research and to leave them with a sense of dignity, knowledge, and a perception of time not wasted”.

(iii) Protection of the Participants: Researcher(s) must ensure that the participants in the research will not be caused distress. They must be protected from physical and mental harm. This means you must not embarrass, frighten, offend or harm participants.

The researcher must also ensure that if vulnerable groups are to be worked with (elderly, disabled, children, etc.), they must receive special care. As in the above mentioned case, the doctor will be studying children, so it is important for her to make sure that their participation is brief as they get tired easily and have a limited attention span.

(iv) Deception: Deception is where participants are misled or wrongly informed about the aim(s) of the research. Types of deception include - deliberate misleading, e.g. using confederates, staged manipulations in field settings, deceptive instructions; and deception by omission, e.g., failure to disclose full information about the study, or creating ambiguity.

2) Should such experimentation be allowed? Why, or why not?

Ans. I do not think so that this kind of experimention should be allowed, as it spoils the nature of a research in general. This is an absolute example of exploitation of human rights and the psychology research ethics. One can't force someone to do something with their will, but the parents who are signing the release allowing her to conduct the experiment are somewhere and/or somehow misguided. The doctor here is taking wrong advantage of her and her institution's power, this may get her in trouble or the institution. Infecting healthy children is unethical but if doing so than safety measures should be taken and the full responsibility for the treatment or if something went wrong should be taken by the doctor and the institution both, so that the parents of that child trust humankind and doctors.

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