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Chemical Engineering Junior Seminar

Name of Student

Name of University

Course

Professor

Date
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Chemical Engineering Junior Seminar

Question 1: (40 points)

a. List two relevant facts that can be used to support group (A) opinion. [20 points]

Group A support the fact that Forced participation of prisoners sentenced to death in conducting

medical research to develop medications or vaccines is necessary for saving many lives. Some of

the relevant facts to support this group A opinion is that: prisoners sentenced to death will die at

some point and using them for research before their death can be beneficial. Secondly, using

these death sentenced prisoners is far more advantageous than using animals such as rat in

research intended to develop medication and vaccination (Victor, 2019).

b. List two relevant facts that can be used to support group (B) opinion. [20 points]

Group B believe that this practice is against respecting human rights and dignity. The two

relevant facts that can be used to support group B opinion are that: Forcing these prisoners to

participate in research is a form of exploitation and exploitation of the participants in clinical

research are unethical and violates the principles of medical ethics. This also denies the

participants the right to informed consent and voluntary participation in research.

Question 2: (20 points)

a. Discuss a conceptual issue that can be used to support group (A) opinion. [10

points]

Death sentenced prisoners are mostly considered to be the perfect population when doing clinical

research since they are readily available and are in a more controlled environment. They are

considered better test subjects compared to the use non-prisoners or animals. In addition,

scientists make several affirmative arguments for conducting studies in prisons. They emphasize
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the extreme scale of the possible results and the benefit to society as a whole. Excluding

prisoners from scientific studies would be detrimental for public scientific studies, and since

exploitation can be avoided, inmates should be allowed to participate in research to save human

lives.

b. Discuss a conceptual issue that can be used to support group (B) opinion. [10

points]

The conceptual issue includes the fact that participation would be publicized, confidentiality may

not be practiced, and that these prisoners are likely to be mistreated or discriminated by the

researchers considering the fact that they understand that they have death sentence.

Question 3: (20 points)

a. Discuss an application issue that can be used to support group (A) opinion. [10

points]

The prisoners` participation in the clinical and medical trials may benefit them directly by

offering them access to cutting-edge interventions that are may not be available in their

environment. Scientists make several affirmative arguments for conducting studies in prisons.

They emphasize the extreme scale of the possible results and the benefit to society as a whole.

They argue that excluding prisoners from scientific studies would be detrimental for public

scientific studies, and since exploitation can be avoided, inmates should be allowed to participate

in research to save human lives (Gordon et al., 2012). There are presumed constraints in

treatment results from incarceration. In other words, for prisoners, they believe good alternatives

are available in the community, just not while incarcerated. A belief that the quality of care

provided in a clinical research study may exceed that of otherwise available treatment, on the
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other hand, is not necessarily unique to incarcerated participants. The prisoner in a variety of

clinical trials may at times receive more attentive care. Nevertheless, the point raised by

prisoners seems to be that the care and attention afforded to them while incarcerated is perceived

as inadequate to their needs and, for some, devaluing of their self-value.

b. Discuss an application issue that can be used to support group (B) opinion. [10

points]

Death Sentence prisoners exist in such highly coercive environments that their consent is nearly

unrecognizable. Free choice is severely altered when choosing to participate in clinical research.

The research ethical principles have various requirements which includes: the researcher must

get the permission from the potential research participants, the research must also lessen the risk

of harm that the participants might experience or encounter, the researcher must provide

protection to the anonymity as well as confidentiality of the participants, the researcher must

avoid the utilization of the deceptive practices such as bribery. Moreover, the research must

assure the participants that they are free to withdraw from the research anytime they wish to.

When forcing death sentenced prisoners to participate in a clinical study, all these ethical

principal aspects are violated and one can argue that all that research aren’t ethical and accurate.

Question 4: (20 point)

Would you, personally, agree or disagree with the claims of those pharmaceutical

companies? Justify your answer. [20 points]

I think I agree with the claims of group B). I don’t think it is right to force an individual

to take part into research. It is important that the ethical principle of research is applied all the

time. Forcing death sentenced prisoners to take part into a clinical study completely violates all
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the ethical principle of research. Despite the fact that these prisoners must die at some point, I

think it is important to allow them to freely decide if they want to take part in clinical research.

By allowing them to make their free choice, human dignity is protected and also the ethical

research principles become of more value to guide any kind of research. Therefore, the State

should exercise its authority to protect prisoners from entering into studies that do not serve the

interests of the prisoners (Dresser, 2020). The practical solution is to show a categorical

restriction that sacrifices some individual autonomy in an effort to protect against what is

perceived to be the greater evil, unjust exploitation. Thus, federally-funded research with

prisoners must focus on upholding the ethical principle of research before using the prisoners in

any research.
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References

Dresser, R. (2020). Putting the ethical principles into practice. Principles of Animal Research Ethics, 69-

78. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190939120.003.0004

Gordon, M. S., Kinlock, T. W., Couvillion, K. A., Schwartz, R. P., & O'Grady, K. (2012). A randomized

clinical trial of methadone maintenance for prisoners: Prediction of treatment entry and

completion in prison. Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 51(4), 222-238.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10509674.2011.641075

Victor, E. (2019). Vulnerability and incarceration: Evaluating protections for prisoners in research.

Rowman & Littlefield.

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