Ethics in Research

Ethical issues in social science research are of crucial importance not only to the individuals involved, but also to society. An understanding of what is and is not permissible arose through decades of debate beginning immediately after World War II, when information regarding how Nazi scientists treated prisoners in their care became general knowledge due to the Nuremberg trials. For instance, prisoners were placed into tubs of ice water to gauge the length of time it took to die from hypothermia; this was done in order to research how to save German pilots shot down over the frigid waters of the North Atlantic. The “high-altitude” experiments, in which prisoners were placed in a decompression chamber so the effects of too-little oxygen could be measured, were especially barbaric. Many subjects had their brains extracted and examined, though they were not dead and had not received any medication—they were, in essence, vivisected. Other experiments included injecting deadly poison into Russian prisoners in order to determine the precise amount of time needed for death and amputating the limbs of prisoners in order to see how quickly they bled to death.

Germany was not the only country to engage in unethical experiments. The Tuskegee syphilis study, which took place in Tuskegee, Alabama from 1932 to 1972, withheld vital information from 300 poor, illiterate Black sharecroppers regarding their potentially fatal illness. The authorities lied about what the farmers had contracted, and the sharecroppers did not receive penicillin—a life-saving medication available at any doctor's office. Instead, they were told that they possessed “bad” blood. Why would American doctors willingly lie to American citizens, though the lie was potentially life threatening? The government was investigating the effects of untreated syphilis and, by the time the subjects were aware of the nature of their illness, many had already died.

During 1961, Stanley Milgram conducted experiments concerning obedience to authority. Milgram grew fascinated with the subject due to stories told by various Nazis during the Nuremberg trials. Without fail (regardless of the defendant's rank), each stated the same [Page 191]thing—they were not guilty; rather, all they did was follow orders. When asked if they found their tasks odious, all said yes, but it made no difference because they had been instructed by a superior. Milgram recruited individuals, ranging in age from 20 to 50, with a variety of educational backgrounds. One individual, the “teacher,” would ask the “learner” questions, and if the reply was incorrect, the teacher administered an electric shock. The shock grew stronger with each successive wrong answer. A wall separated the teacher from the learner, and though they could not see each other, they could hear each other's voices.

The subjects acting as teachers did not realize it, but the “shocks” being administered were fake. In reality, the “learner” was a confederate of the researcher, and the scream the teacher heard was a tape designed especially for the experiment. The study was conducted to see how far an individual would go if instructed by a superior, even if what he or she did was unethical or dangerous. The results were nothing short of stupefying. Each participant could have stopped the experiment at any time, but no one did. Approximately 65% of the teachers administered a “shock” they assumed to be of 450 volts, strong enough to cause death.

...