Case Unit 4 - Ethics

Question 1

What is the definition of ethics?

Answer 1

Well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do

Question 2

Name the major points of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Answer 2

Voluntary consent
Yield fruitful results for society
Based on previous animal experiments
Avoid unnecessary physical/mental suffering
Should not risk death or disabling injury
Risk should not outweigh importance
Protection measures against death/disability
Conducted by scientifically qualified people
Subject can withdraw
Must be prepared to terminate experiment

Question 3

What are the major ethical violations surrounding the 1932-1972 Tuskegee Study?

Answer 3

Denied treatment even once it was readily available

Unnecessary suffering of a vulnerable population

Question 4

What were the major ethical violations surrounding the Alder Hey Tissue Scandal?

Answer 4

Tissue obtained without consent from children who died at the hospital
Was stored and used for research
Resulted in the creation of the Human Tissue Act

Question 5

What is Karl Poppers theory of falsifiability?

Answer 5

Falsifiability is the assertion that for any hypothesis to have credence, it must be inherently disprovable

Question 6

How did the Wakefield MMR study contravene ethical guidelines and demonstrate a conflict of interest?

Answer 6

‘MMR causes autism’ - falsified by several papers, original paper retracted
Drew strong conclusions from weak evidence
Wakefield was funded by solicitors looking for evidence against vaccine manufacturers
Children were cherry-picked to try and support hypothesis
Misreporting of findings - claimed some children had diseases that they didn’t