If the deed was done, would you still reap the rewards?

[Hotfoot]

Okay, after hours upon hours of subjecting myself to the various Star Trek re-runs on Spike, I have several gripes about Federation Morality. However, this one does rather strike a chord with the modern world, and is still somewhat debatable: If a scientist/doctor/researcher without any morals conducted unsafe/unethical/dangerous tests on humans in order to create a new lifesaving procedure, medication, something that could wipe a mental disorder from the planet permenantly, or something of similar value to improving the overall human condition, what would you do?

One choice is to chastize the offender publicly, but let them continue research under strict guidance to avoid further crimes against humanity. Another would be to lock the offender up/execute them but use the fruits of the research anyway, and of course there's the Federation which would advocate destroying the research in addition to A or B, since it was obtained illicitly.

Letting him go about his research as before is a final possibility, but is clearly morally reprehensible.

Remember, to get this result, people died, perhaps in a slow and painful fashion, maybe they were driven insane, or starved to death, or what have you. For the sake of argument, we'll assume that for one case, he used people that were going to die soon anyway, convicted felons with no question of guilt, cancer patients in the terminal stage, etc. In another case, there was no such deciding factor, men, women, and children of all races, religions, and so on were chosen. In the final case, the subjects were chosen by ethnic or religious backgrounds.

You all have been assigned to the Ethics Committee and are responsible for determining what will happen. This result could be the cure to cancer, all mental illness, HIV/AIDS, genetic diseases, something to extend quality of life for another 20-40 years, or so on.

[frigidmagi]

I'd have to think about what I would do personally. But I can tell you what the governments of the world already have done. They took the information developed in the ghastly experiments of the Holocuast and the Japanese Bio Units and ran with them, giving us the basis for much of our modern understanding behind genetics and other medical fields...

[LadyTevar]

There is also the whole start of the Rocket program from the German V2 rocket bombs that fell on England.

Edit: How did the first doctors learn about human anatomy? Graverobbers dug up fresh bodies and sold them.

[frigidmagi]

And to bring it closer to home there is the Tuskgee Experiment. 400 black men were denied treatment for Syphallis so that doctors could study the effects.

[Mayabird]

And to bring it closer to home there is the Tuskgee Experiment. 400 black men were denied treatment for Syphallis so that doctors could study the effects.

I'd thought that the Tuskegee experiment was actually to see if black men responded to syphilis differently from white men. They knew plenty about the effects of syphilis from the previous few hundred years of people getting it and dying. Racist junk science, in other words.

[frigidmagi]

The experiment was intented to go for 6 months for excaltly that same reason yes. But when the results came in that it effected them the same as white men... Well they got excited, the data was refuting all the theories. They decided they had to keep the experiment going as long as possible to see the effects.

[Stofsk]

Crying about the methodology in an ethical sense after it has been done is sort of moot, isn't it? The cats out of the bag. Sure, punish the offender/s to the fullest extent of the law. What they did was an abomination. But at the same time, the data they have could be invaluable for forwarding scientific truth. And I don't have a problem with this - the data itself is not responsible for this.

Which TNG episode did this come from, Hotfoot?

[Hotfoot]

I don't remember. In fact, I don't remember if it was TNG, DS9, or Voyager (yes, I've been subjecting myself to THAT, perhaps the reason for the memory loss).

The primary issue of contention, of course, is that by accepting the work of the madman, it stands as a testament that future transgressions will be treated similarly, encouraging such behavior from others down the line. Of course, the natural counter is that the research is valuable and could save untold lives, thus the lives given would at least not have died for nothing, the deaths would mean something. Naturally, someone could easily suggest that is that since THIS was so beneficial, letting the person or people involved continue research under proper constraints could lead to further advancements. Naturally, the morally bankrupt would say don't get involved, let the research continue as it was.

Personally, I would say let the results stand, let a generous portions of any profit made go to the families of the test subjects as restitution. As to the madmen, I'd be sorely tempted to let them continue research under strict restraints provided they showed some sort of remorse for their actions.

[Stofsk]

I think it was a Voyager episode. The episode which has the Cardassian Doctor inside the Doctor's program? At the end of the episode he (or was it Lameway?) decided it was ethical to delete the guy from the program, even though this would erase the medical research stored in his program.

Yeah. Am I glad I left Voyager half-way through the third season.

[Shark Bait]

a disturbing amount of knowledge about psychology and Neurology actually comes from many horrible holocaust experiments. For example did you know that if you have someone hold two pipes in one hand one that is warm but not burning hot and one that is rather cold but again not tissue damaging the subject will feel an intense burning pain. that little fact taught us a lot about different pain receptors the case studies from the holocaust are still being analyzed by psychologists.

So I'd have to go with probably punishing and most likely executing said doctor but using his research making it public knowledge.

[frigidmagi]

To boil it down. The answer is you already are reaping the benefits of unethical experiments everytime you seek medical treatment. Many of those persons who engaged in evil experiments have been punished. Some have not.