Ethics
ETH/316
1/01/13
David Cavazos

Unethical Business Research

This paper will cover a research institute who allegedly engaged in unethical research practices. What unethical research behavior was involved, who were the injured parties, how the unethical behavior affected the organization, the individual and society and how the unethical behavior can be avoided or resolved? One particular case that stands out is with a renowned institute call John Hopkins University, According to Rosner and Markowitz (2012) “in 2001 Maryland’s court of appeals was asked to decide whether researchers at JHU had engaged in unethical research on children” (pg 19).

What unethical research was involved? In 2001 the Maryland court system had been asked to determine whether researchers at John Hopkins and Kennedy Krieger Institute (children’s research and clinic center at JHU), one of the nation’s most prestigious academic institutions, had engaged in unethical research on children, with a lead abatement research project it conducted in the 1990’s (Rosner & Markowitz, 2012). In the eyes of the public the controversy was whether or not the children were being used as human guinea pigs as the experiment recruited families with young children, primarily low income African American families, in a long study which exposed the children to differing amounts of lead in their homes, lead levels ranged from none to just below the existing legal limit in Maryland. The children were periodically tested for lead levels in their blood system, there were changing levels of lead in the blood and researchers had hoped to find the most cost effective way of reducing lead poisoning in children. It was believed that the John Hopkins University had engaged in research abuse of vulnerable families, According to Rosner and Markowitz (2012) “for the court it was deeply troubling that a major university would conduct research that