(1) Department of Law, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom;(2) Institute of Medicine, Law and Bioethics, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom
Abstract:
This paper discusses the use of the Milgram obedience experiments and the Tuskegee syphilis study in the bioethical literature. The two studies are presented and a variety of uses of them identified and discussed. It is argued that the use of these studies as paradigms of problematic research relies on a reduction of their complexity. What is discussed is thus often constructions of these studies that are closer to hypothetical examples than to the real studies.