GE-Ethics MWF 12:30-1:30 October 30, 2019

Roluna, Shara Monique

Sabusay, Benmar

1. According to Kant’s Categorical Imperative, we should treat humanity as ends and never as mere means.
Based on Kant’s Categorical Imperative, it is ethical to use people, if they are volunteers, as test subjects
because they gave consent to being used as test subjects. Humans are their own ends, they are rational
and autonomous. Humans have the ability to set their own goals and work toward them. Kant pointed
out that using other people is okay because one way or another, we use other people as a means for
something but not as a mere means. We still recognize their humanity when we use them and they agree
to being used. The volunteers weren’t manipulated for the benefit of the scientists/researchers. They
weren’t lied to for them to volunteer for the experiment. The volunteers were given the option to make
an autonomous decision for themselves whether to be part of the experiment or not.
2. In the point of view of a member of the ethics committee, I would allow the volunteers to be used as test
subjects because the experiment was conducted for the benefit, of not only the scientists and researchers,
but also for the benefit of the people like the volunteers—people that are diagnosed with AIDS/HIV.
This debunks the assumption that using the volunteers as test subjects tantamount to using people as
mere means. They might be used as means to accomplish something but they are not used merely for the
accomplishment of that task. Their interest to find for cure, as people with AIDS/HIV, were considered
by the scientists and researchers.