The platinum award-winning documentary explores the bleak cautionary tale of Nazi-era nurses who deserted their professional values. It brings to light nurses who killed the crippled, mentally sick, and the elderly under the orders of the Third Reich (UTHealth Nursing, 2017). The documentary argues that, rather than alleviating the pain of the defenseless and rejecting immoral instructions, the implicated nurses lost all sense of professional duty and compassion, eventually collaborating in genocide.
The video asks audiences to contemplate the reasons and significance of such horrible ethical transgressions in medical treatment and its consequences for today through conversations with specialists and survivors (UTHealth Nursing, 2017). The film is relevant in the medical field today because it still carries its primary intent. It carries a message for the current medical practitioners to remain faithful to the call even under intense pressure to work otherwise. The cardinal duty of medical practitioners is to save a life.
Research Ethics
The execution of biomedical research involving human subjects raises many ethical considerations related to values such as dignity, liberty, and privacy. The four major ethical concepts are beneficence, nonmaleficence, liberty, and fairness. We are guided by ethics to speak the truth and follow our promises (Daigle, 2014). Ethics provides a framework to guide decision-making and lead human beings away from unethical and unjust consequences.
In research, ethical concerns are a set of values that drive research activities. Voluntary engagement and outcomes communication are two of these ideas. It is critical to follow ethical guidelines to safeguard the dignity of study participants (Daigle, 2014). A committee should examine human subjects’ research to verify that ethical standards are followed. Ethics enable a fair approach to everyday activities to consider the other party’s feelings when decision-making.
Belmont Report Part 1
Respect for humans, beneficence, and fairness are three core concepts commonly recognized in our cultural history pertinent to research ethics involving humans. The Belmont Report aims to synthesize the Commission’s main ethical principles discovered throughout its discussions (Irbmed, 2011). The report clarifies who should receive the research benefits and endure its burdens. It resulted from a four-day intensive debate at the Smithsonian Organization’s Belmont Convention Centre in February 1976.
It was augmented by the Commission’s monthly discussions over four years. It is a declaration of fundamental ethical principles and standards that should address ethical issues when researching human beings. The paper underlines the need to maximize potential benefits while minimizing potential hazards. As in any complex issue, the many rights protected by the concept of beneficence may clash and require tough decisions.
The Belmont Report (Part Two: Applying the Principles)
According to the study, respect for individuals demands that subjects be given the option to determine what happens to them to the extent that they are capable. It then focuses on three factors that it believes are critical to a successful and ethical consent process such as information, understanding, and informed consent. Researchers are responsible for guaranteeing that they tell people about what their involvement entails and that those people comprehend the information.
When they decide to engage, it is their free choice, free of undue pressure or compulsion (Irbmed, 2011). Lastly, the report requires that research address various factors, including the fact that harsh treatment of human beings is never morally justifiable. The vulnerable groups are included in research to prove the acceptability of their inclusion. In documentation and processes utilized in voluntary participation, relevant benefits and risks should be meticulously arranged.
IRB (Institutional Review Board)
When assessing research, Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are driven by three essential ethical principles regarding human topic protection: respect for individuals, beneficence, and fairness. Giving consent to be a study subject does not imply surrendering any rights. A subject can disengage from a research study at any moment or decline to engage without losing any advantages to which they are otherwise eligible.
A subject also has the right to proper professional treatment, confidentiality, and privacy when using personal details and to be free of extreme humiliation, discomfort, worry, and intimidation (Johns Hopkins Medicine, 2015). The investigator’s principal responsibility is to protect evidence on an individual gathered during an inquiry. Measures must also be implemented to ensure confidence in the storage and eventual disposition of every data gathered. The primary investigator must outline adequate security precautions to the IRB and implement them until the documents are destroyed.
References
Daigle, D. (2014). Research Ethics involving Human Subjects. [YouTube]. Web.
Irbmed. (2011). The Belmont Report (Part One: Basic Ethical Principles). [YouTube]. Web.
Irbmed. (2011). The Belmont Report (Part Two: Applying the Principles). [YouTube]. Web.
Johns Hopkins Medicine. (2015). Guiding Principles of Institutional Review Boards (IRB). [YouTube]. Web.
UTHealth Nursing. (2017). CARING CORRUPTED – The Killing Nurses of The Third Reich. [YouTube]. Web.