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Transcript

Monkey Drug Trials (1969)

The Ethics

Premise

The experiment was held in 1969 and was designed to test the addictive nature of various drugs on the mind and body. The subject chosen by the psychologist included chimpanzees.

In an experiment done with chimpanzees to test the addictive nature of various drugs on the mind and body the monkeys were harmed by the effects of the drug, making this is an unethical experiment. Anything that is living should not be subjected to harm in an experiment.

Procedure

The Effects

After finding the appropriate subjects for the experiment, the experimenters proceeded to get the subjects addicted to the various drugs, which included morphine, alcohol, codeine, cocaine and amphetamines. After the animals were addicted to the substances, the scientists left the animals alone with ample supplies of the addictive substance.

The effect of these drugs began to show in the subjects immediately. The monkeys grew so disturbed that some of them broke their arms in an attempt to escape. Likewise, the monkeys who injected themselves with cocaine on a regular basis suffered from convulsions and some even tore off their fingers. A monkey who took amphetamines tore off all of the fur on his arm and abdomen. Finally, in the case of morphine and cocaine combined death resulted within two weeks.

What were they trying to find?

Researchers were trying to see how much of a dependency is cause by taking illicit drugs and what behaviour subjects will exhibit in order to maintain their addiction. The experiment found that the biological traits were similar to that of humans, and results suggested that one of the key motivations for drug abuse was the psychological dependence. This experiment found the key reason why drug abuse takes place which can help researchers and physicians provide a psychological treatment which can help people with a drug addiction give up.

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