Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

Ashley Robertson, Bloomsburg University
Human Experimentation: Guinea Pigs or Volunteers for a Cure?
Late in the month of August, most individuals prepare for the start of a new school year. The
beginning of the school year is usually a reminder that an annual visit to the doctor is necessary to receive
a physical. For some, this yearly checkup can cause fear because most associate this visit as an
opportunity to receive many shots. How do doctors know what kind of shots to give? How are vaccines
created? What is the reliability of any vaccine on the human body? Human testing, an underestimated,
and often controversial subject is the answer to these questions.
Human testing is often neglected because most individuals think that the only medical testing is
on animals. Why would scientists want to use a human test subject and risk their life? Isn‘t that unjust?
Although human and animal bodies share some of the same properties, the way the bodies react to certain
medications or even other products differs. The medical knowledge that is obtained from human testing
experiments can improve society‘s overall health. Therefore scientists and their participants who
successfully conduct human testing should follow the Nuremburg Code as well as creating a new oath
that protect the rights of their subjects during experimentation.
Some of the human testing experiments can be intense or mundane, ranging on what researchers
want to conclude. For example, medical researchers want to test vaccines and see the effects on the
human body, or, cosmetic researchers could want to test out qualities of shampoos and their effects on the
scalp. Since the spectrum of experiments can vary, the guidelines should be concrete no matter what the
experiment consists of to ensure the quality of the experiment and safety of the test subject.
Human testing is a privilege scientists are able to experience. Their experiments are created to
better society as a whole. Making sure that their test subjects are healthy before, during, and after the
experiment is just as important as the results that are concluded. In the past, the government felt as if this
aspect was not important.
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