3.78 How should the samples been analyzed?

Refer to the ovarian cancer diagnostic test study in Example 3.33 (page 165). Describe how you would process the samples through the mass spectrometer.

3.79 The Vytorin controversy.

Vytorin is a combination pill designed to lower cholesterol. The combination consists of a relatively inexpensive and widely used drug, Zocor, and a newer drug called Zetia. Early study results suggested that Vytorin was no more effective than Zetia. Critics claimed that the makers of the drugs tried to change the response variable for the study, and two congressional panels investigated why there was a two-year delay in the release of the results. Use the Web to search for more information about this controversy, and write a report of what you find. Include an evaluation in the framework of ethical use of experiments and data. A good place to start your search would be to look for the phrase “Vytorin’s shortcomings.”

3.80 Facebook and academic performance.

First Monday is a peer-reviewed journal on the Internet. It recently published two articles concerning Facebook and academic performance. Visit its website, firstmonday.org, and look at the first three articles in Volume 14, Number 5–4, May 2009. Identify the key controversial issues that involve the use of statistics in these articles, and write a report summarizing the facts as you see them. Be sure to include your opinions regarding ethical issues related to this work.

3.81 Anonymity and confidentiality in mail surveys.

Some common practices may appear to offer anonymity while actually delivering only confidentiality. Market researchers often use mail surveys that do not ask the respondent’s identity but contain hidden codes on the questionnaire that identify the respondent. A false claim of anonymity is clearly unethical. If only confidentiality is promised, is it also unethical to say nothing about the identifying code, perhaps causing respondents to believe their replies are anonymous?

3.82 Studying your blood.

Long ago, doctors drew a blood specimen from you when you were treated for anemia. Unknown to you, the sample was stored. Now researchers plan to use stored samples from you and many other people to look for genetic factors that may influence anemia. It is no longer possible to ask your consent. Modern technology can read your entire genetic makeup from the blood sample.

3.83 Anonymous? Confidential?

One of the most important nongovernment surveys in the United States is the National Opinion Research Center’s General Social Survey. The GSS regularly monitors public opinion on a wide variety of political and social issues. Interviews are conducted in person in the subject’s home. Are a subject’s responses to GSS questions anonymous, confidential, or both? Explain your answer.

3.84 Anonymous? Confidential?

Texas A&M, like many universities, offers free screening for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. The announcement says, “Persons who sign up for the HIV screening will be assigned a number so that they do not have to give their name.” They can learn the results of the test by telephone, still without giving their name. Does this practice offer anonymity or just confidentiality?

3.85 Political polls.

Candidates for public office hire polling organizations to take sample surveys to find out what the voters think about the issues. What information should the pollsters be required to disclose?

3.86 Making poll results public.

Some people think that the law should require that all political poll results be made public. Otherwise, the possessors of poll results can use the information to their own advantage. They can act on the information, release only selected parts of it, or time the release for best effect. A candidate’s organization replies that it is paying for the poll in order to gain information for its own use, not to amuse the public. Do you favor requiring complete disclosure of political poll results? What about other private surveys, such as market research surveys of consumer tastes?

3.87 Student subjects.

Students taking Psychology 001 are required to serve as experimental subjects. Students in Psychology 002 are not required to serve, but they are given extra credit if they do so. Students in Psychology 003 are required either to sign up as subjects or to write a term paper. Serving as an experimental subject may be educational, but current ethical standards frown on using “dependent subjects” such as prisoners or charity medical patients. Students are certainly somewhat dependent on their teachers. Do you object to any of these course policies? If so, which ones, and why?

3.88 How many have HIV?

Researchers from Yale, working with medical teams in Tanzania, wanted to know how common infection with HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) is among pregnant women in that African country. To do this, they planned to test blood samples drawn from pregnant women.

Yale’s institutional review board insisted that the researchers get the informed consent of each woman and tell her the results of the test. This is the usual procedure in developed nations. The Tanzanian government did not want to tell the women why blood was drawn or tell them the test results. The government feared panic if many people turned out to have an incurable disease for which the country’s medical system could not provide care. The study was canceled. Do you think that Yale was right to apply its usual standards for protecting subjects?

3.89 AIDS trials in Africa.

One of the most important goals of AIDS research is to find a vaccine that will protect against HIV infection. Because AIDS is so common in parts of Africa, that is the easiest place to test a vaccine. It is likely, however, that a vaccine would be so expensive that it could not (at least at first) be widely used in Africa. Is it ethical to test in Africa if the benefits go mainly to rich countries? The treatment group of subjects would get the vaccine, and the placebo group would later be given the vaccine if it proved effective. So the actual subjects would benefit and the future benefits then would go elsewhere. What do you think?

3.90 Asking teens about sex.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a survey of teenagers, asked the subjects if they were sexually active. Those who said “Yes” were then asked, “How old were you when you had sexual intercourse for the first time?” Should consent of parents be required to ask minors about sex, drugs, and other such issues, or is consent of the minors themselves enough? Give reasons for your opinion.

3.91 Deceiving subjects.

Students sign up to be subjects in a psychology experiment. When they arrive, they are told that interviews are running late and are taken to a waiting room. The experimenters then stage a theft of a valuable object left in the waiting room. Some subjects are alone with the thief, and others are in pairs—these are the treatments being compared. Will the subject report the theft? The students had agreed to take part in an unspecified study, and the true nature of the experiment is explained to them afterward. Do you think this study is ethical?

3.92 Deceiving subjects.

A psychologist conducts the following experiment: she measures the attitude of subjects toward cheating, then has them play a game rigged so that winning without cheating is impossible. The computer that organizes the game also records— unknown to the subjects—whether or not they cheat. Then attitude toward cheating is retested.

Subjects who cheat tend to change their attitudes to find cheating more acceptable. Those who resist the temptation to cheat tend to condemn cheating more strongly on the second test of attitude. These results confirm the psychologist’s theory.

This experiment tempts subjects to cheat. The subjects are led to believe that they can cheat secretly when, in fact, they are observed. Is this experiment ethically objectionable? Explain your position.

3.93 What is wrong?

Explain what is wrong in each of the following scenarios.