Cancer Treatment and Ethics

¶ … ethical principles and laws were followed by Dr. Perry Hudson's research on the "Bowery Bums?" Do you agree/disagree with his methods? You must defend your answer.

First and foremost, Hudson's work did not solicit informed consent from the subjects. The subjects were poor, desperate, alcoholic men who did not fully understand the research that was being conducted upon them. Hudson did not inform the men of the physical consequences of what he was doing: "he did not warn the men he was recruiting that the biopsies to search for cancer could cause impotence and rectal tears. Or that the treatment should cancer be found -- surgery to remove their prostates and, often, their testicles -- had not been proven to prolong life" (Nazaryan 2013). Even if he did, their state of mind would make them unable to consent. Medical research should minimize the risks to subjects and the risks should be outweighed by the potential benefits as well as to an abstract notion of humanity. Hudson was so focused upon researching cancer he did not stop to reflect that the likely benefits to the subjects were not outweighed by the negatives, rationalizing that the food and shelter he provided to destitute men would be enough compensation for them, even though this would not have been the case for an affluent man with a family.

Nazaryan, A. (2013). When cancer treatment and medical ethics clashed on the Bowery.

The Atlantic. Retrieved from: http://m.theatlanticwire.com/national/2013/10/when-cancer-treatment-and-medical-ethics-clashed-bowery/70678/

Q2. Having established some structures and functions of cells, pick two structures and relate them to the body functions.

The mitochondria is often called the powerhouse of the cell, propelling all of the cell's essential functions through protein synthesis. It would roughly translate into the digestive function in the human body as food is translated into useable energy or stored as fat. "The energy made by the mitochondria is in the form of a chemical called adenosine triphosphate or ATP for short. ATP is an energy currency that every cell in our body can use and it keeps us alive. The machinery that the mitochondria use to make ATP is called the electron transport chain" ("What do mitochondria do?" 2015).