Ethics and Medicine

In response to our class discussions, I would have to note that we seem to have taken a few things for granted.  The speculum may seem obvious to us now, but the only reason it is obvious to us now is because it was once an revelation to someone else.  The medical ethics that we force doctors to adhere to now are the result of atrocities and advancements that have occurred over time.  Take the Harlow experiment for example.  The Harlow experiment took a baby chimp and placed it in a room with a wire version of a mother chimp that dispensed milk.  He then placed it in a room where the wire version of his mother was wrapped in terrycloth but did not dispense food.  The baby chimp was willing to starve for the comfort provided by its "mother" (the terrycloth) just because it was soft and nurturing.  This would be considered unethical today, but why?  We still perform horrible experiments on dogs, cats, birds, horses and other animals, do we not?  Could it be because apes and chimps are "humanoid" to some extent?  Because they look like people and can sometimes act like people, are we more inclined to treat them like people?

Jordan Nicholson