When the Homily is about Immunology

Vulnerable Subjects

So I am being subjected to a series of online training sessions for my work...which in a way makes ME a vulnerable subject (keep reading). Anyway, it's all about training researchers on how to be ethical in the design and implementation of their studies, read: avoiding lawsuits.

In a section where they list "vulnerable subjects" (There are several classes of vulnerable subjects, with varying degrees of potential vulnerability. These classes are discussed below, including the potential for control, coercion, undue influence, or manipulation.)I found the expected: mentally disabled, children, educationally disadvantaged, and the economically disadvantaged. But also was included this:

Embryos and Fetuses have absolutely no capacity and are under the direct control of the mother.

Woah...come again? Are they serious? This from a work environment that is ridden with people who will deride the Bush administration and pro-lifers to no end for being morally/ethically opposed to embryonic stem cell research? I truly am astonished. When they say the fetus has "no capacity", in context, they mean the fetus has no capacity to "voluntariness." So why not kill them? Ummmm...I'm not following the logic...how can they list what you MUST come to believe is non-human as a vulnerable class of people?

I love receiving "ethics" training from my work. I feel so illumined now. Make no mistake about it, the litany of regulations we must now follow with regard to our research is due solely to federal laws and not because scientists have some grand knowledge of ethics that protect the public...care to have a look at some of the horrors that have taken place in research of the past (like in the past 75 years)?

HERE