Problem
Read the following vignette and, using evidence from the ethics code (i.e., standards and general principles), appropriate readings, and at least one independently located piece of scholarly work, type a 5 page paper (double spaced, 12 point font). Be sure to consider the following standards: 1.03; 1.04; 1.05; 6.01; 8.09 (a-f). In preparation for your essay, consider the following questions:
• Did Lucy follow appropriate guidelines for addressing ethical concerns within organizations, resolving issues informally, and reporting ethical violations?
• Did Lucy follow appropriate guidelines for documenting scientific work and maintaining records?
Ethics Vignette
Dr. Meyer's lab is conducting research on the rate of nerve death after a spinal cord injury. In this experiment, cats are exposed to a sudden-impact injury, similar to those experienced in car accidents. The cats are decapitated at a set time interval after injury for postmortem microscopic examination of nerve tissues. To retain the integrity of decapitation, Dr. Meyer trains Lucy, a graduate lab assistant, to run the experiment, including the proper surgical procedure for decapitation without anesthesia.
In the last few weeks, Dr. Meyer notices that the condition of the nerve cells has changed and asks Lucy if there have been any changes in the care of the cats in the surgical procedures or in the post-surgical extraction of the nerve cells. Lucy says yes, that she has started to administer anesthesia prior to decapitation. Lucy maintains that decapitation without the use of anesthesia is unnecessarily cruel, and its use does not violate the integrity of the study. She began to engage in the procedural change only after filing a complaint with the national Institutes of Health (NIH), their granting organization, and the university's IACUC (the body responsible for ethical care of animals in research).