Research Ethics

Milgram’s study had a number of strengths the first being the actuality that it was performed in a laboratory environment, thus, providing the researcher a high control level. Another strength is that the participants volunteered to engage in the experiment. Acquiring volunteers for a laboratory experimental study is deemed hard thus that was an additional strength. Further the study shows elevated experimental realism via the tension depicted throughout the study by participants (Sagepub, 2014).

However this study was marred with ethical concerns, the first being deception: the participants were told that the study was about the impacts of punishment on learning and were also told they would be subjected to electric shocks. An additional issue is the fact the participants were paid this interfering with the consent and freedom to leave the experiment. Most significantly, the fact that participants experienced high levels of stress after the study is extremely unethical (Sagepub, 2014).

Informed consent refers to the act of providing factual information to participants in order to for them to make knowledgeable decisions of engaging in the research.  Deception: if research participants are to be deceived then the deception must not be extreme such that the informed consent is invalidated. Care must be taken to avoid trauma deception. Confidentiality refers to the act of avoiding disclosure of the identities of the participants; their identities must be kept confidential at all times. Debriefing is the act of informing the participants the real purpose of the study along with providing participants with ways of contacting the researcher regarding the study results.  The general research study requires to be assessed by a review board of the particular institution (Smith, 2006. 

The study that I find possessing elevated unethical issues is the stem cell research: the sourcing of pluripotent stem cells originating from oocytes and embryos fraught the onset of personhood. Additionally, difficult dilemmas exist regarding consent of donating human stem cell (hSC) materials research along with lack hSC research oversight. These ethical issues including others such as early hSC therapies clinical trials require to be addressed urgently (Parham & Lo, 2009).  

References

Parham, L., & Lo, B. (2009). Ethical Issues in Stem Cell Research. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2726839/

Sagepub. (2014). Ethics in Research. Retrieved from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/46055_Pages_from_Chambliss_%284e%29_Chapter_3.pdf

Smith, I. A. (2006). Research ethics. New York: Routledge.