Arguments against research on non-competent people

The topic of research amongst individuals who are deemed non-competent is ethically controversial. According to Wolbring (1999) allowing for high-risk and non-beneficial research on non-competent people can result in serious abuse. From the 1930’s up until the 1970’s researchers had been recruiting black males to participate in the study of syphilis. The researchers had told these men that they were receiving treatment when in fact at the time syphilis was untreatable. The purpose of this study was to see the effects of syphilis on the human body over time (Emanual, Abdoler, & Stunkel, 2006). The example demonstrates how researchers have the ability to act unethically and exploit their human subjects to serious abuse and long term disability simply for the sake of research. In the case of teenagers, due to their non-competence parents will often assume the role of decision maker for that child. The ethical dilemma with non-competent youth is that parents may bribe their child in order to participate in certain research studies (A handbook for Human Research Ethics, 2010). As well as the issue of bribery from parents, youth who have substance abuse issues or are homeless may be compelled to participate in dangerous studies for the sake of financial compensation. According to the handbook for Human Research Ethics (2010) Youth with addiction may use the money they receive to further support their habit as well as the substance abuse may interfere with their ability to make appropriate decisions. Individuals who are non-competent are an extremely vulnerable group because they can be easily taken advantage of and mislead. When conducting research on this cohort of