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They're different questions. Seeing the Mengele reference above, one interesting ethical question pops up in cases like this. Do you use the data? One side says
by icegreentea 16y ago
They're different questions. Seeing the Mengele reference above, one interesting ethical question pops up in cases like this. Do you use the data? One side says that by doing so, it legitimizes whatever was done. The other side says that not using it is just throwing away all the suffering that happened anyways.
Anyhow, it's one of those positions that you either waver back and worth on, or quickly find a position, and then never really move away from. For that reason, I rather avoid that actual discussion. Instead, I will point out that a great deal of current knowledge of how humans react in extreme cold is still based or built on experiments conducted in concentration camps.
So really, you can't dismiss the question of 'was useful data gained" by just saying "it was gained unethically".
- borism 16y ago"Do you use the data?" - what kind of ethical question is that? This is purely scientific question, has nothing to do with ethics. There are just some things that are not ethical, like testing on people, or killing civilians or, you know, torture. Doesn't matter if you got some positive data point out of that. Those things are simply not justifiable.
- icegreentea 16y agoNo one is going to argue that the experiments were wrong, and NOT justifiable. But now the data exists. If its justifiable to use that data IS an ethical question. And as I outlined above, it's not all cut and dry. Especially when it comes to the concentration camp experiments, BECAUSE WE ALREADY DID. Are we suppose to unuse the data? Or what? That's where the grey comes in.