Medicine Research, Ethics and Law - Essay Example

Introduction: The development of science and technology has helped mankind in many ways to find cure for his ailments and make his life more comfortable. At the same time, these developments have brought in some negative side effects of science and technology that are misused. The basic ethics are neglected in many areas of research and at the same time ethics also hinder the developmental processes which are good for mankind in future. Moral ethics in animal experimentation: Keeping animals aloof from the boundary of moral ethics is a pure disregard for life. It is generally seen in research field that animals and humans are kept in separate boxes when moral ethics are concerned. Claiming that humans are superior to animals in an evolutionary basis or for the simple reason that they lack the power of reasoning and language can be correlated to discriminations found presently in human civilization based on color, race and gender. Before the evolution of ethics in human clinical research there were many incidents like the Nazi experiments and Tuskegee syphilis study in which many humans were used as experimental beings without consent, on the reason that these people were of lower race or helpless to raise their voice against such inhuman crimes. The animals used in research are in the same position like humans in these old inhuman experiments. It is true you cannot obtain consent from an animal but the fact that the way an animal feels pain is same as a human feels it and this is not something even the researchers are ignorant about .The nervous system that reacts to any kind of external stimuli or pain is equally developed in both animals and humans. Darwin points out in his studies that animals too have emotions like humans do; they do feel sad, desolate, apprehensive, bored, and disgruntled. Modern research supports the theories of Darwin. People who have pets must have felt the same on seeing how these home grown animals react and respond to human behavior. As far as research and development in diseases and medicine are concerned, animal experimentation is a necessary part that cannot be excluded. We can have animals in experiments but we need to treat them with more respect and as a living being that has a soul and feeling like a human does. Developing animal models is another area of scope that can reduce use of animals in research. The living conditions, food and treatment provided in research labs kill more animals than the experiment itself. The development of Human neuron mouse, a mouse with a brain that has neurons of human origin took the ethics to a new level. The chances that such laboratory-developed chimeras can also show human feelings, reasoning, and other capacities related to human morality created strong views against such experiments. Development of such experiments requires a moral basis for consideration. Prisoners in experimental research: The code of federal regulations, part 46, subpart C, seems to put across a nice picture in regulating the medical research conducted on prisoners. An important part to be stated here is that prison research takes place in an enclosed atmosphere in comparison to clinical research done in general public. The clinical research done in general public so far at the same time has come out with many cases of manipulations and unlawful procedures followed by people involved in its conduct. Taking such cases into consideration one can just imagine what could happen to a research out of the reach of media and general public, such as the prison. The environment and mental atmosphere a prisoner can get in a prison while undergoing medical experiments is a topic of much concern. The prisoner has less chance of discussing his/her health related problems to people concerned about their health like family members, relatives or friends. Prisons have a history of drug testing that has an inhuman side to it. Many of the experiments that have taken place in prison environment were not correctly recorded, may be because it failed miserably leading to death or other disability of the prison inmate .There is no available database in regard to medical research done on prisoners. In investigations conducted by certain media about such research clearly showed that basic things in the code of federal regulations with regard to human subjects like consideration of ‘minimal risk’ was completely violated. Quality prison health care should be considered first even before thinking about medical research in prison environment. U.S has a history of abusing imprisoned people in the name of research and in respect for Nuremberg code medical research in prison should be stopped. Non-approved drugs for non- clinical trial patients: The Abigail Alliance for Better Access to Developmental Drugs is an organization that is working towards an amendment in constitutional law, which will allow terminally ill patients to have an option to use medications undergoing clinical trial .At the same time experimental medications in various phases of clinical trial is not approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to be safe and efficient for human use and treatment. The alliance at the same time points out that those drugs which successfully pass the Phase I of clinical trials should be made available to patients with terminal diseases and for those patients whose terminal disease condition is non-curable by available marketed drugs. Abigail Alliance was founded by Frank Burroughs whose son, Abigail Burroughs was denied treatment with drug Erbitux which was under clinical trial while Abigail was at terminal stage of Head and Neck cancer. This incident led to the formation of this organization. The organization’s stand is rather disappointing as the drugs in clinical trial have certain pharmacological based evidence on which patients are screened and enrolled in clinical trials. The complete safety and efficacy analysis of a drug can only be determined when the three phases of clinical trials are over .The possible side effects of a drug can only be determined in a long time duration and that is the reason why clinical trials run for a longer duration. Then administering drug to non-trial patients even puts the doctor into dilemma as he will be unaware of the possible side effects and reactions of the drug. Many drugs in clinical trial do not pass the FDA approval as they fail in safety more than efficacy and put the patient in danger of other serious health problems due to the new drug. Moral class of a Medicine: The World Medical Association is of the opinion that medical ethics will remain the same in times of war or peace but in practicality the statement does not hold true. A military physician faces strange and never before experienced situations that lead into dilemmas which causes collision of medical ethics and objectives of military. The perplexed situations that a war scenario offers will be alien to public medical profession. “The United States code allows the Secretary of the Army to direct the medical care of any individual on active duty. He may determine that the needs of army are so significant that they must override those of the soldier-patient.” (Beam & Howe 853). This legal side of USA seems to override the medical ethics. In World War II soldiers were administered with drugs that were under research study, in the name of safeguarding soldiers against diseases. These drugs were not certified for use on humans by FDA. History stands proof that penicillin and anthrax vaccine administration were done in military to increase the efficiency of military without considering the quality of medical care. These incidents reveal the truth that medical ethics differ in times of war. Performance enhancing drugs (PED): As a base ball player I will accept the offer to use the steroid to enhance my performance if the drug is sure to evade from doping tests and at the same time if it is safe for health. Recent studies have revealed that performance enhancing drugs are used by a high number (80%) of players in base ball game. Many great base ball players like Jose Canseco, Ken Caminiti, and Mark McGwire have achieved their great heights in the game with the help of these drugs. When one has an environment of high competition and if his natural physical abilities do not allow to perform beyond a certain extend, while at the same time his team mates can perform well, such drugs can boost the moral and physical capacity of the person. Also when a person lands at a place where most of them around you get fame and accolades with the help of PED he/she will be inclined to use such drugs. Removing PED from games is practically impossible as many drugs can even evade the doping test. The only way to find a solution to this problem is to allow use of PED. Then regulations should be brought in stating what kind of drugs should be used in a game as many PED are toxic in nature and will cause serious health related problems. Then another major step after approving PED is to educate players about toxic drugs and problems due to drug overdose. Then medical research should be conducted to evaluate the safety and efficacy levels of available PED and from this a list can be concluded that are safe for players. Then there should be special regulations for teenage players in using approved PED, as they are in development stage. Conclusion: The needs for more drugs are of prime importance due to the outbreak of new diseases. Many new drugs claim to be effective but measuring safety should also be considered. Misuse of drugs in many fields put a haunting question that how a proper regulation can be made on drugs. Drugs have an important role in human development but at the same time drug misuse is another chapter of concern in human history. Work Cited Beam, Thomas & Howe, Edmund. A Proposed Ethic for Military Medicine. Military Medical Ethics. Web. 03 May.2010. . Read More