• fckreddit@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 hours ago

      I am sure you have examples of situations where lower ethical standards led to much faster progress in research.

      • Vreyan31@reddthat.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        14 minutes ago

        Unfortunately, research on prisoners and concentration camp victims did produce new valuable medical information.

        Most of the field of gynecology is based on experiments done on women slaves, where the “doctors” decided their victims conveniently didn’t have nerve endings.

        Ethics throttles research.

        But I am aghast at the thought that we should permit unethical research in the pursuit of, at the end of the day, greed.

        And I say this as a professional scientist.

        I can’t believe this conversation is even necessary.

      • jsomae@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        3
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        2 hours ago

        Many kinds of early-in-life medical interventions can have permanent negative effects if they go bad, but nonetheless our ethical standards don’t preclude them. This is a field where the ethical standards are suffocatingly high without good reason. As an aside, we should consider euthanizing newborns who suffer debilitatingly severe negative side effects due to any kind of failed medical intervention (with parental consent, of course). This will directly improve quality-of-life standards and also allow us to lower ethical standards on experimental treatments too.