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Shulammite Lin
Professor M. Ogbara
English 1A
16 November 2015
The Cost, Profit, and Choice in Human Experimentation for Medicine
Is there any morality in the scientific use of human beings in research, or does the
necessary elimination of errors outweigh the risk of lives being affected? Any sacrifice, when
examined with an ice-cold eye, can be deduced as an act of injustice, regardless of how great of a
harvest grows as a result. In cases of human experimentation, countless numbers of these
injustices have been made in the pursuit of knowledge and meaning well, and yet the brutal
details and outcomes of the circumstances have very often been swept under the silent rug of
bribed press. Contrary to the easy belief, advancements in human medicine biological and
psychological, did not all come about in the name of hard work and detailed measurements;
rather, a great deal of procedures have been served with data recorded by the conductors of the
lowest human acts in history. Though my current understanding of this subject is rather limited
and biased to stories Ive read of the Nazi medical experiments and the Japanese biological and
chemical warfare tests taken part during the Nanking Massacre of the 1930s, I have the full
intention of finding and addressing both the costs and the benefits of such processes in my final
research essay.
I expect my final essay to focus more on societys view of the worth of human life and
medicine, rather than describing the brutalities of human experimentation. The reason for this is
that I predict that accessible reports of human experimentation occurring today will be either
extremely sugarcoated or nonexistent, just as I believe historical reports are. I do not wish to

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sicken my readers by overwhelming them with the many examples of how inhumane humanity
can be, but I will aim to stress the overall severity of the results, as well as the equipment the
research has given to so many who practice medicine today. The reason for my interest in this
topic of human experimentation is not only a response to my desire to expose the truly upsetting
past of so many who have and are unknowingly paying a price to the well-being of medicines
future, but also to lighten my ignorance on the true benefits of scientific work.
Annotated Bibliography:
Barenblatt, Daniel. A Plague upon Humanity: The Secret Genocide of Axis Japan's Germ
Warfare Operation. New York: HarperCollins, 2004. Print.
Journalist Barenblatt addresses the actually happenings of Japans biological warfare Unit 731.
Bok, Sissela. On Opening Human Experimentation to Moral Debate. The Hastings Center
Report 16.5 (1986): 1011. Web.
Philosopher Bok addresses the dismissal of morality in human experimentation which took place
towards the 1960s.
Goliszek, Andrew. In the Name of Science: A History of Secret Programs, Medical Research,
and Human Experimentation. New York: St. Martins, 2003. Print.
Psychologist Goliszek exposes the dark price of knowledge with how research has so often
breached ethical limits.
McNeill, Paul M. The Ethics and Politics of Human Experimentation. Cambridge: Cambridge
UP, 1993. Print.
Dr. McNeil outlines the process carried out by ethic committees covering the subject of human
experimentation.

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Resnik, David B. "Social Benefits of Human Subjects Research." Journal of Clinical Research
Best Practices 4 (2008): 1-7. ResearchGate. Web.
Bioethicist Resnik addresses the many benefits human experimentation has brought to society
and the future of medicine.