In what way could the researchers in the Willowbrook study have designed their research on the hepatitis virus so that it was ethically acceptable?
a. The researchers could have given each participant a chance to assent.
b. The researchers could have performed their study on persons who were capable of full assent.
c. The researchers could have made the study available at many institutions for the mentally retarded.
d. The researchers could have performed descriptive research on persons already infected with hepatitis.
ANS: D
From the mid-1950s to the early 1970s, research on hepatitis was conducted by Dr. Krugman at Willowbrook, an institution for the mentally retarded. The subjects, all children, were deliberately infected with the hepatitis virus. During the 20-year study, Willowbrook closed its doors to new inmates because of overcrowded conditions. However, the research ward continued to admit new inmates. To gain their child's admission to the institution, the parents were forced to give permission for the child to be a subject in the study. Because, the principal of beneficence requires the researcher to do good and "above all, do no harm," the only way to study a virus that clearly harms people is non-interventionally: through descriptive or correlational research.
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