Blog 19

The Milgram experiments were thought be very controversial because of the way he went about the experiment.  The test put a lot of unnecessary stress on the participants because they were faced with the dilemma of following their own moral beliefs and stopping the experiment or choosing to obey an authority figure by continuing with the test despite the screams of agony from the victim they thought they were shocking.  Dan McArthur writes in his article about the ethics of the experiments.  He believes that good ethics can sometimes mean better science.  “All agree that if the Milgram experiments were proposed today they would never receive approval from a research ethics board. However, the results of the Milgram experiments are widely cited across a broad range of academic literature from psychology to moral philosophy.(1)”  This brings a sigh of relief to many knowing that ethical standards have improved since the 1960s.  The Milgram experiment actually led to changes in many ethics committees in reviewing new studies and test involving human beings.  It is important that this ideology be maintained in future scientific studies.  If we continue to respect the importance of ethics in scientific research, then we can prevent science from spinning out of control where progress fails to appreciate the moral code of civil human beings.  Without these ethics boards, experiments could have gradually have gotten worse in degree of morality.  We have the Milgram experiments to thank for helping set up guidelines in ethical review for new research.