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NIH MODULE MICROTHEME

Protecting Human Research Certificate & Microtheme
Joelle Sarnoff-Loo
Throughout history, there have been a multitude of unethical experiments performed
under the name of research. Fortunately, modern day advances have been able to place
regulations and guidelines on those who wish to perform research on living humans. This is a
critical point because proper respect for humans in our research projects onto the larger scale of
respect in our nation as a whole. The National Institutes of Health module on protecting human
research provides an excellent reference for acceptable behavior when regarding humans in
research. Without these guidelines, any individual that claimed to be a researcher could treat
people however they wanted. This affects the big picture of how people should be treated in our
country negatively because it creates a vibe of not having to take responsibility for your actions.
With the protection placed on human research by the NIH, we can learn from the questionable
work of researchers in the past and understand how to properly treat people in the future. Having
respect for the humans involved in research is the same as having respect for any human living in
America. It is a necessity for a healthy country, and promotes the fairness that a developed
country should possess. To treat research subjects in any way other than those specified to be
acceptable by the NIH would create a dangerous environment that does not properly represent
the academic community of a first-world country. It is a duty of those who conduct research to
set the example of fair treatment of humans in order to reflect the fairness that should be present
in our nation in total.