Psy570
In the paper The Clara Cell by: A. Winkelmann and T. Noack, I believe the central ethical conflict was how he practiced medicine, which they called "medicine without humanity". Humans have come up with a lot of sayings that describe various things they do such as "the end justifies the means" and " who can put a price on what's for the greater good", but doing things like that such as aiding or reaping the rewards of unjustifiable deaths, as Max Clara did, just to make advances in science is inexcusable even if greater goods came from such experiments and scientific findings. They were all done in vain.
By today's APA code of ethics standards, Max Clara would have been in violation of all 5. He had no morals or responsibility for his actions as they were all for the support of the Nazi regime. He lacked integrity because you cannot possess integrity when you believe and act above the law. Not only was he excepting part of the “more than 4,000 executions in 1943” (725), but “Even 7 years after the Nazi era” (725) he was carefully wording his admission to still accepting cadavers for studies. While some would argue that he had integrity in his work because he continued to do his work for the so-called good of science, but, I believe, he did his work without integrity because with it he would have believed in himself enough to know his work would have stood on better ground and for more had he at least rightfully sought permission to use wrongfully persecuted cadavers. “Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.” (Wikipedia) Seriously, how do people justify this stuff to themselves? Therefore, he obviously lacked justice as he had a warped sense of justice since the cadavers were of people wrongfully killed for one mans deluded mindset that anyone not Arian must die. Obviously, Max Clara also obliterated the concepts of respect for people’s rights and dignity because he didn't even want to notify the next of kin of what was happening to their loved ones. People were disposable to him; they were nothing more than experimental dummies that he never looked at as humans with souls that bled the same color as he did. He was deluded and narcissistic to but it nicely. Though he may have made advances in science they were made in cold blood and he should never have had the right to have his name associated with anything of note that he found just based on his lack of ethics to how he found it. We should not reap rewards for wrongs. As for ethical standards, well he had absolutely no consent of any form from any of his cadavers while they were living nor from next of kin after they were murdered, period, enough said.
The ethical implications of the Clara cell on contemporary psychology are that you cannot murder people in the name of a regime or science than just act like you're above the law and next to god. Therefore, there are rules, regulations, guidelines, laws, checks and balances, ethical boards and licensing boards, consent forms, sign offs, informational who what when where and whys, paperwork to back up paperwork, morals, and values being taught, support groups and helplines for people who start to have crazy thoughts and so on. The fact that at some point genetics started allowing for lapses in people’s better judgment of right and wrong has lead humanity as a society to have an overabundance of people checking on people so other people don’t get hurt somehow.
Research in society is a hard thing to achieve. People want to be informed but they do not want their privacy to be violated. They want to feel as though they are contributing to the greater good and helping but they want to be in control of everything as if that is something that is tangible to have. It’s become an increasing struggle for researchers to find valid, sound-minded, truthful people to conduct scientific studies on because people need to know everything. Fear of the unknown has become so crippling that scientific advances are hindered legally to keep everyone's rights protected and intact. Psychological professionals just as scientists must make every effort to inform participants of as much as they can and offer ample debriefing of any and all ways after the study is complete so that the participants do not feel hurt, harmed, violated, demoralized, cheated, lied to, not fully informed, disoriented, confused, or any other form of sad or bad. Only glad is accepted nowadays. This not only to the participants themselves but to their families as well.
Works Cited and References:
Works Cited and References:
- Winkelmann, A., & Noack, T. (2010, March 11). The Clara Cell: A "Third Reich eponym"? European Respiratory Journal, 36(4), 722-727.
- Dusing B. Abschaffung der Todesstrafe in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. [Abolition of capital punishment in the Federal Republic of Gerrmany.] Dissertation, University of Freiburg/Br., 1952.
- Integrity definition. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrity