MEDICAL ETHICS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

MEDICAL ETHICS - Essay Example oral standards when conducting scientific experiments on live subjects, both human and animal subjects, in that certain practices are no longer allowed just for the sake of obtaining some data. It is now a requirement to seek prior approval before conducting an experiment to ensure that no subjects will be harmed and this strict code of ethical conduct has been extended to many clinical trials as well with regards to testing new drugs on people, that consent has been obtained and that full disclosure of potential side effects are made transparent and explained to participants. There are many ethical, moral and legal issues involved in animal testing such as using experimental new drugs on animals. These issues have concerned scientists and researchers alike and also animal rights advocates, who question the value of the data obtained from that kind of research (Watson, 2009, p. 17) while others prefer scientific research experiments should still be conducted but only under strict conditions that met all the ethical criteria (Rollin, 2006, p. 3) and that ethics should be applied in science. This topic is the subject of this brief paper concerning its so-called 3 Rs, namely replacement, reduction and refinement with regards to such experiments. The adoption of the aforementioned 3 Rs was a big step towards ethical considerations on experiments done on live animals. It was put forth by two eminent British biologists in 1960s as a way to treat animal subjects more humanely and acquired the status of an ethics standard. It has been termed as the 3 Rs principle and is discussed here in connection with the experiment on monkeys as observed in the wild and in captivity by scientists researching on the causes of stress. This is because stress is one of the leading causes of death among humans and knowledge gained from studying the troops of monkeys and baboons have great implications for the human species. Along this line, each component of the said principle will be