Ethics Research

I found an article about a man who was killed by the British Royal Airforce in 1953. The article was about the verdict of a court case held 20 years after the soldier's death. The soldier was killed during a series of nerve agent gas tests by the British government during the Cold War.

I found a few instances in the article where the scientists conducting the tests had used de-humanizing language. The first of which was a statement by one of the doctors at the research facility where the man was killed. The doctor stated that he believed the researchers had been acting in "reasonably good faith" while conducting the tests. This seems like a very odd statement from a person who was on trial for killing someone.

Another instance in the article where de-humanizing language was used was in reference to the names of the various human trials. These trials were unrelated to the death of the soldier. These were wide area tests designed to test the effects of small amounts of a nerve agent on a large amount of people. The first of these wide area tests were the "Fluorescent Particle Tests." The second were the "Large Area Coverage Tests." The last series were called "The Sabotage Trials." Only the last of these sounds even the least big suspicious. The first two sound like any other scientific experiment.

I had quite a hard time finding any original documents from recorded ethical lapses. It was an interesting search though, through the lists of ethical lapses in history. Most of the accounts that I found were about chemical tests like in the article I read. Humans can do some terrible things to other humans, it really is crazy.