Ethical debate about Harlow's Study

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Ethical debate about Harlow's Study

Advantages

  • The monkeys were already orphans so it wasn't as though they were being seperated from what they already know.
  • It could be argued that ends justify the means in this study

Disadvantages

  • Some of the monkeys would have suffered psychological harm
  • The monkeys couldn't give consent
  • The results are not 100% generalisable to humans

Evaluation

The question whether or not Harlow's study was ethical right or not is hard to answer. This is because it could be argued that the study was not because the monkeys were not able to give their own consent on taking part on the study. However if you look at the study the monkey that were used were already orphans meaning that they didn't know any other life. However a problem with the study is that the monkey would have probably suffered from psychological harm. Is that fair on the monkey, especially if the results are not 100% reliable to humans. The main question is does the end justify the mean. 

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