When Research Serves Good Purposes: Three Additional Considerations to Determine the Ethical Use of Ill-Gotten Research

Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash INTRODUCTION It is a classic ethical dilemma to have something of potential value that comes at a tremendous cost to others.[1] To access the good, you must have the bad. For decision-makers, it becomes an onerous task of deciding if they would deny the world something 'good' or create something bad to achieve the good. Weighing the two possible outcomes has proven timelessly frustrating to those well-intentioned people who wish to "do the right thing." Medical research has yielded data derived from unethical situations wherein research participants were vulnerable and whose consent was questionable, absent, or not sought. The rules currently governing research allow for broad use of ill-gotten data. While providing a deterrent to unethical research practices, stricter rules still would allow some use of data. This paper argues the permissibility depends primarily on the nature of the unethical data collection and the potential benefits. ANALYSIS The American Medical Association (AMA) places additional obligations on researchers who utilize data obtained from unethical experiments. The Code of Medical Ethics Opinion 7.2.2[2] recommends that researchers and peer reviewers should take the following steps to best handle such data: (a) Disclose that the data derived from studies do not meet contemporary standards for the ethical conduct of research. (b) Clearly describe and acknowledge the unethical nature of the experiment(s) from which the data are derived. (c) Provide ethically compelling reasons for which the data are being released or cited, such as the need to save human lives when no other relevant data are available. (d) Pay respect to those who were the victims of the unethical experimentation. The AMA does not go far enough to protect past research victims or prevent future research ethics violations. Three additional considerations beyond the limitations offered by the APA are needed for ethical use of the data: who collected the data and ran the experiments, who would benefit from the data, and how much additional benefit would ensue from its use. A specific focus on data generated by Nazis whose research subjects were imprisoned in concentration camps highlights the ethical challenge. l. Who Created the Data? Medical research generated during the Holocaust subjected innocent people to torture in the name of science. Arguments can be made against the use of such data on the g