| Historical
Considerations and Value Approaches in Responsible Conduct of Research
Jeffrey Kahn
Learning Objectives
University Policies and Procedures
Curriculum Overview
Information Resources
Learning
Objectives
- Briefly describe some historical issues in the responsible conduct
of research, and their importance for current research conduct.
- Briefly discuss various sources of ethical values, and the implications
of adopting one source over another for the ethical decisions
that may result.
- Briefly discuss a variety of ethical issues in the responsible
conduct of research, and some approaches to their resolution.
These might include principles, case-based analysis, and other
forms of public deliberation.
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University
Policies and Procedures
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Curriculum
Overview
Introduction
History teaches us that responsible conduct of research has been
an issue for as long as there has been research. Examples and their
resolution help us understand the development of approaches to dealing
with ethical issues, and how cases may have influenced policies
in the present. Looking at past and present cases helps to answer
the question about how we understood the ethics of science in the
past, and how we think about it today. By examining some of the
bases of how we think about ethics, and about the ethics of research
in particular, we can understand and better appreciate the foundations
of current laws and policies for research.
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History and Responsible Conduct of Research
- Mendel’s "Too Good" Peas
The reported assortment of Mendel’s colored peas exactly
matched his predictions based on genetic theory. Unfortunately,
such precision would not be seen in natural assortment, so the
conclusion is that Mendel "cooked" or "trimmed"
his data.
- Milliken’s Oil Drop Experiments
Because his oil drop experiments did not consistently produce
the results he needed to support his theories regarding the physics
or charged particles, Milliken discarded the errant trials as
"incorrect," and reported only the data he chose.
- William Beaumont and Alexis St. Martin’s Abdominal
Fistula
William Beaumont was a 19th Century Army surgeon called to treat
a trapper who had accidentally been shot in the abdomen, creating
an opening in his abdomen (a fistula). Beaumont convinced his
patient, Alexis St. Martin, to participate in research on digestion
offered by the opening in his gut. Their relationship points out
potential conflicts between roles of physicians as care providers
and researchers, and the potential exploitation of research subjects.
- The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The predecessor agency to the CDC funded a research project in
which 400 African-American men with syphilis were deceived into
participating in a study of the natural history of the disease.
Subjects were offered "treatment" for their disease,
when in fact none was offered and the only interventions were
diagnostic and sometimes risky (spinal taps). During the course
of the study, penicillin was discovered, but withheld from the
subjects until the time that the research was stopped in 1973.
This case was one of the sentinel events that catalyzed the creation
of federal regulations for the protection of human research subjects.
- Milgram’s Deception Research
Stanley Milgram was a social science researcher interested in
studying the personal behavior of individuals. But to do so, he
employed deception as a research method. His studies included
observing the behavior of men in gay bath houses, then following
them home and posing as a door-to-door survey researcher so he
could ask them about the intimate details of their sex lives;
and placing volunteers in situations where they were required
to be obedient and then asked to carry out actions that would
cause harm to others, including delivering electric shocks.
- The Iminishi-Kari/Margot O’Toole/David Baltimore Case
As a postdoctoral fellow, Margot O’Toole blew the whistle
on what she claimed was the falsification of data in a laboratory
run by David Baltimore. The scientist charged with fraud was Teresa
Iminshi-Kari, and the story of the alleged falsification, O’Toole’s
whistleblowing, and the level of Baltimore’s responsibility
for the research and its subsequent publication offer valuable
lessons for contemporary science.
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Other Useful Cases:
- Good's Painted Mice
University of Minnesota researcher in whose lab mice were marked
with felt tip pens to create the appearance of genetically altered
strains. This case represents the falsification of data at a very
basic level—in the experimental animal itself.
- University of Wisconsin "Window Dressing" Case
J. Leon Shohet, Director of Engineering Research at the University
of Wisconsin, faced federal charges stemming from the misuse of
research funds. He was charged with creating a false list of payee
companies, which allowed him to fraudulently augment his research
budgets. This is a case about the stewardship of research grants.
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What Limits Irresponsible Conduct and Promotes
Responsible Conduct of Research?
- Laws, regulations, policies and their sources
- Where does morality come from?
- Relativism over time, place and culture
- Looking for an anchor—some approaches to values in research
- Commonly shared principles
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Information
Resources
Beauchamp and Coughlin (1996). Ethics and Epidemiology, NY: OUP,
Ch. 1.
Brandt, Allan (1978). "Racism and Research: The Case of
the Tuskegee Syphilis Study." Hastings Center Report 8(6):21-29.
Broad, W., & Wade, N. (1982). "Deceit in History,"
in Betrayers of the Truth. NY: Simon and Schuster.
Kevles, Daniel (1998). The Baltimore Case, NY: WW Norton.
Miller, Arthur (1986). The Obedience Experiments: A Case Study
of Controversy in Social Science. NY: Praeger.
Numbers, Ronald (1979). "William Beaumont and the Ethics
of Human Experimentation." Journal of the History of Biology
12(1):113-35.
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