Ethics in Research: Learning from History

Researchers once deliberately infected children with hepatitis and let syphilis go untreated in

men for 40 years just to see what would happen. These were real, unethical studies

like the Willowbrook Study and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Because of these horrors,

we now have strict ethical rules in all research. The number one principle is beneficence,

which means "do no harm." This is why researchers must get your informed consent,

fully explaining all the risks and benefits before you agree to anything. Now,

every study has to be approved by an ethics board to protect participants and ensure history

never repeats itself.