Biomedical research and testing (a bioethical topic of yesterday and today) - Essay Example

Additionally, in Europe, 400,000 people are said to have also died due to small pox. Edward Jenner is alongside other fathers of medical history who discovered the small pox vaccine. It is obvious that the survivors of the disease, had become immune to the disease and therefore, they were called upon to nurse the affected ones because they were not likely to suffer from the disease again. Edward Jenner discovered that milkmaids who were infected with cowpox virus were immune to smallpox, and to test this theory, he got some pus from the cowpox blister that was found on one of the milkmaid called Sarah.

He then injected the pus to his son’s gardener, James and repeated a number of days increasing the amount of pus into the boy. Additionally, he deliberately injected the pus to his gardener James, and through it he became ill but recovered after a few days. He even repeated the same experiment on his own son and other children by infecting them with cowpox as well as smallpox. Jenner’s experiment became the evidence used to come up with inoculation that finally eradicated smallpox. Jenner experiment can be well explained by Machiavelli quote “the end justifies the means”, which in this case it is questionable. . This was obviously wrong because of his actions.

In the first place, Jenner was not right when he decided to conduct his experiment on his gardener’s son. The end does not always justify the means. Kapis and Gad claim that, it is human nature, for individuals to not always justify their actions. Therefore, if Jenner’s experiment was incorrect, the gardener’s son would have died instantly or would have been infected by the disease as well as other children (34-56). The gardener would have lost his son, because of Jenner’s experiment.

To borrow from Beauchamp’s words, we cannot trust the world to be moral and idealistic enough in helping the environment and humanity, and at the same time, be practical enough to make difficult decisions that will cause a great harm to the people (34-68). Nevertheless, Jenner also attempted the same experiment on his own son, risking even more. This means that he could have lost his son as well. However, his experiments saved millions of people as well as his willingness to push his theory in the name of medical and scientific discovery, and as result proved that sometime, the end justifies the means.

Some current medical practices which preclude the particular type of experiment that Jenner practiced are still similar today. For example, people have forced to have the smallpox vaccine by being injected. This is not a normal injection, but a painful one that generates a pox and eventually a scar (Conn 34-66). In the world of medicine, there are bioethical battles on testing drugs. In 3rd world countries, companies are testing drugs on the patients because it is cheap and no regulations. This test is like Jenner’s experiment on his gardener’s son and has facilitated new