One of the rudimentary ethical principles that guide clinical nursing research is the protection of human participants, specifically the protection or the right to freedom from injury (Fain, 2015). This principle is inherent to the nursing to code of ethics of do no harm. Fundamentally, it is the nurse’s responsibility to advocate for the health and safety of their patients through careful and continuous monitoring. Based on the documentary by Hornblum, 2004, Dr. Kligman’s experiments on humans in prison violated this fundamental protection causing untold physical and emotional harm to his participants. The numerous testimonials from the victims of his experiments described substantial pain and long term health complications. When ensuring the right to freedom from injury, vulnerability is a key factor (Fain, 2015). These participants belonged to a vulnerable population who were poor, uneducated, unquestioning, and lured by economic incentives (Hornblum, 2004). The appeal of making one to two dollars per day …show more content…
These protections need to be upheld and at the same time, this vulnerable population deserves the same representation in studies that may lead to health benefits for them and society as well (Maron, 2014). For example, according to Kondo et al., 2014, the rate of HIV/AIDS for people living in prisons is 2.4 times that of the general population. This population may be invaluable to HIV/AIDS research and at the same time provide an opportunity for treatment that may otherwise be unavailable to them. If strict ethical principles are upheld and the benefits out weight the risk, then incarcerated individuals should be afforded the opportunity to