Validity and Ethics of Scientific Experimentation

Validity and Ethics of Scientific Experimentation

Research Study 1

1.

A. The goal of the study is to figure out if cultured human cancer cells would grow in humans. Hypothesis: "If cultured cancer cells are injected into humans, then the cancer cells will grow inside the human body." Yes the hypothesis is falsifiable.

B. An alternative hypothesis can be “If cultured human cancer cells were injected into a human with cancer and a human without cancer, then the human with cancer would reject the injected cancer cells faster than the human without cancer.

C. The study is repeatable, however it is impossible to reuse the same subjects as before because a couple of subjects that were originally injected with cancer cells deceased.

2.

A. The study that Southam did was beneficial because researchers were able to figure out that humans with cancer were able to reject cultured human cancer cells faster than humans without cancer. Also the cultured cancer cells reoccur faster in humans with cancer than humans without cancer.

B. The act of injecting cancer cells into patients with cancer without their knowledge can be arguably maleficent. Even though the patients already have cancer, using them as test subject by injecting them with more cancer can be considered unethical. While some of these patients received biopsies, other patients were left with cancer cells in their arm. However, in order to receive results, harming others is unavoidable.

C. The patients did not have the freedom to reject the experiment because the patients with cancer had no knowledge that they were being injected with cancer cells and therefore, they didn’t have the choice to say no. However, in the Ohio State Penitentiary, the prisoners were given the choice to reject the experiment.

D. This experiment could be considered fair because the subjects Southam used were people with and without cancer, regardless of the race.

3. To improve the study, both groups of test...