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Call for Retraction of 400 Scientific Papers On Organ Transplantation Amid Fears That Organs Came From Chinese Prisoners (theguardian.com)

A world-first study has called for the mass retraction of more than 400 scientific papers on organ transplantation, amid fears the organs were obtained unethically from Chinese prisoners. The Guardian reports: The Australian-led study exposes a mass failure of English language medical journals to comply with international ethical standards in place to ensure organ donors provide consent for transplantation. The study was published on Wednesday in the medical journal BMJ Open. Its author, the professor of clinical ethics Wendy Rogers, said journals, researchers and clinicians who used the research were complicit in "barbaric" methods of organ procurement.

"There's no real pressure from research leaders on China to be more transparent," Rogers, from Macquarie University in Sydney, said. "Everyone seems to say, 'It's not our job.' The world's silence on this barbaric issue must stop." A report published in 2016 found a large discrepancy between official transplant figures from the Chinese government and the number of transplants reported by hospitals. While the government says 10,000 transplants occur each year, hospital data shows between 60,000 to 100,000 organs are transplanted each year. The report provides evidence that this gap is being made up by executed prisoners of conscience.

141 comments

  1. What about the illegal autopsies in England... by ClarkMills · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ...was many centuries ago however... The science is still valid though which is what matters...

    1. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by HornWumpus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Better analogy would be Nazi cold exposure science.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    2. Re: What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All that matters is that I have fresh organs on standby.

      Jobs only mistake was ordering his takeout way to late. Stupid hippie.

    3. Re: What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bite my ass creimer

    4. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by RyanRife8866 · · Score: 1

      So are you saying I can get away with anything as long as I do it in the name of science?

    5. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by r2kordmaa · · Score: 2

      No, you'll still go to prison. But science is not about what is legal or ethical, science is about what is true and what is false. Laws of nature don't give a shit about laws of man.

    6. Re: What about the illegal autopsies in England... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      Jobs was of Lebanese descent. The odds of him finding a tissue match in China is low.

      IIRC he got a lobe of a living person's liver, which extended his life.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
    7. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 2

      Better analogy would be Nazi cold exposure science.

      I think you mean Japanese cold exposure science. Nazis also did their own, but most of the people experimented on were Chinese prisoners of war.

      --
      -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    8. Re: What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      He got a transplant. You have no idea you lying faggot. Stop blathering moron. Stop making dumb shit up. Get smart, stupid. Google it first. https://www.farces.com/did-steve-jobs-get-favored-transplant-treatment/

    9. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Better analogy would be Nazi cold exposure science.

      Indeed. Much of what we know about reviving cold water drowning victims comes from research conducted by Nazis on prisoners.

      Should we insist that these victims die instead, because the research was unethical? There are activists calling for exactly that. So the death of innocent people would be honored by ... deaths of additional innocent people.

      The Dacau Hypothermia Experiments

      Why is the organ transplant research any different?

      What is the next step? Should we also throwout research from scientists that were unethical in the personal lives?

    10. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by AHuxley · · Score: 2

      Data sets found by the UK and US from Japan and Germany methods got accepted by the West after 1945.
      The people who did the work got protected and looked after in the USA and UK after 1945.

      What to do with the research for Germany and Japan?
      The people who worked with Germans in 1946?
      The people in the USA who got promoted in the 1950's-80's who worked with directly with Germans in the USA using German results and data?
      The people now who studied the same German science in the USA and who are working for people who worked with people selected for gov/mil work by Germans decades ago?
      The books, building names, papers, book chapters, pictures in ?
      The photogenic and charismatic interviews by German experts safe in the USA in the 1950's about space, altitude, cold, oxygen?
      So many Germans, so much advanced US science.
      That need for data from 1945 Japan and the deal done to secure all the results from Japan.

      Remove the book chapters? Change the names of US gov buildings, sites and awards?
      Remove all the "1940's" German related space and aviation results from the web?
      When can US science be seen as a good US product again?
      Late 1990 and its all not evil again as the US did its own science and was not under German influence?

      The data from Japan? How many got advancement and promotions using that data in the US gov/mil?
      Publications that resulted?

      Academic advancement under direct German supervision in the USA between say 1950-1980?
      Who got what skills learning from and with that generation of Germans?
      Get to keep accomplishments when working directly with such Germans?
      How many hops from German science and results from Japan is US science going to be good?
      A decade and a generation? Not using results and data from the 1950's to 1970's under a list of names?

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    11. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The Nazi government no longer exists. Discarding their research saves nobody. The Chinese government still exists. Discarding their research may prevent them from doing more like these.

    12. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by alvinrod · · Score: 2

      The reasoning behind retracting the publications is to discourage further unethical practice in the future. That's it right there.

      Here's an interesting question for you though. Should possession of child pornography be illegal? Arresting someone for having an illegal digital image that they had no role in the production of would be similarly useless or is it different here? The reasoning is the same. Arresting someone for possessing child pornography doesn't remove the abuse or suffering that the victim suffered, but it does help to prevent further production.

    13. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The difference from your analogy is that the world benefits from the research, whether it was done ethically or not. The world does not benefit from CP.

    14. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, the world does not benefit from the research. The world slips closer into harvesting people for research purposes from the research, which is not beneficial.

    15. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I can't think of anywhere else where possessing media of a crime is, itself, a crime. Also, removing anything from circulation creates a demand for further production.

    16. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by sixsixtysix · · Score: 3

      Why not create a race of sub-humans with no frontal cortex to harvest organs? Seems like a logical, ethical, win-win scenario.

      --
      ...
    17. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We tried that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Party_(United_States) They abuse their organs out of sheer stupidity also, unfortunately. It's a lose/lose.

    18. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Indeed. Much of what we know about reviving cold water drowning victims comes from research conducted by Nazis on prisoners.

      Did you even glance at the paper you linked? It says the research is total rubbish due to poor design, shoddy and incomplete data collection, lack of cardiovascular knowledge, outright falsification and fabrication to please Himmler, and totally unsupported conclusions. We most definitely learning nothing from that particular set of tortures masquerading as experiments.

    19. Re: What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's already happening, friend.

    20. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Swave+An+deBwoner · · Score: 4, Informative

      It seems that you did not understand or perhaps did not read the article you cited on "The Dacau Hypothermia Experiments". The concluding paragraph emphatically states that the "research" was useless:

      If the shortcomings of the Dachau hypothermia study had been fully appreciated, the ethical dialogue probably would never have begun. Continuing it runs the risk of implying that these grotesque Nazi medical exercises yielded results worthy of consideration and possibly of benefit to humanity. The present analysis clearly shows that nothing could be further from the truth.

    21. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      The Chinese government still exists. Discarding their research may prevent them from doing more like these.

      China isn't going to eradicate capital punishment because "The West" refuses to read their research papers.

      Deleting these papers from the archives is going to save exactly zero lives.

    22. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not on your life.

      Autocratic governments don't care about what the rest of the world thinks. They are going to continue killing political prisoners.

      If that is the reality that cannot be undone, then why should those prisoners die and nothing of value whatsoever come of their deaths?

      There is no moral dilemma here once you accept that these prisoners are going to die no matter what we do.

    23. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The Japanese government still exists, we still use the data from Unit 731.

    24. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by columbus · · Score: 3, Informative

      Agreed. More quotes to refute the value of that nazi "research"

      This review of the Dachau hypothermia experiments reveals the critical shortcomings in scientific content and credibility. The project was conducted without an orderly experimental protocol, with inadequate methods and erratic execution. The report is riddled with inconsistencies. There is also evidence of data falsification and suggestions of fabrication. Many conclusions are not supported by the facts presented. The flawed science is compounded by evidence that the director of the project showed a consistent pattern of dishonesty and deception in his professional as well as his personal life, thereby stripping the study of the last vestige of credibility. On analysis, the Dachau hypothermia study has all of the ingredients of a scientific fraud, and rejection of the data on purely scientific grounds is inevitable. They cannot advance science or save human lives.

      To the above I will add, that the "study" lacks one of the basic requirements of the scientific method: reproducibility.

      --
      friends don't let friends teleport drunk
    25. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well that's crystal ball shit, Bill. It will do two things - disincentivize the practice for this purpose, which would otherwise perhaps grow, and bring scientific research authors something to look into worldwide in all research - ETHICAL SOURCING.

      Stop being a moron apologist for literal barbarism, it's disgusting even for you.

    26. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      China has our most favored nation trade status. Tell me again how we can still TRADE with these people when they are giving away the organs of prisoners of conscience. Probably to rich high bidder recipients! I always wondered how low America could sink when money becomes more important than its people. We are close to the bottom, are we not?

    27. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How?

      If they are performing this unethical research for their internal interests, then they DGAF what we think. Us not using it only harms us.

      If they are performing this unethical research because publishing it garners international renown, then why not just accept the research but insist that the first author is always "Dr Murderer of the Chinese Prisoner Organ Harvesting Programme"? We should respect the fate of those who were killed or mistreated, without throwing away the only good thing to come from their suffering.

    28. Re: What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't confuse Japan with Imperial Japan. Just because it uses the same name does not make it the same country.

    29. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Better analogy would be Nazi cold exposure science.

      I think you mean Japanese cold exposure science. Nazis also did their own, but most of the people experimented on were Chinese prisoners of war.

      How did the Nazis get Chinese prisoners of war? I'm asking because I'm curious about the history. I know that the Nazis put almost every person of Asian descent into slave labor camps after WWII began, but up until 1941 the Chinese were German Allies. Are you sure that there were Chinese POW's?

    30. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      > Should possession of child pornography be illegal?

      Should calling a transgender man "she" be punishable? Both involve speech, and both provide medical information which can be used to save a life.

    31. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      This is the case for a great deal of human medical research, especially involving trauma.

    32. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by fafalone · · Score: 1

      Well the reasoning isn't quite the same because evidence indicates that just as with adult pornography and the incidence of rape, so to does access to CP provide an outlet that makes pedophiles less likely to offend with an actual child. It's punishing thoughtcrime at the expense of actual child rape (which becomes even more apparent when the typical penalties are harsher for pictures than actual rape). Furthermore, law enforcement resources are finite and the vast majority are spent on shooting fish in a barrel with the low hanging fruit of possession, instead of the more difficult and important work of tracking down major distributors and producers. The most recent major bust was a farce, 11 months, eclipsing the 11 days of the first time this behavior shocked us, of the government being the world #1 CP distributor, for a few hundred possession busts globally and a grand total of 2 people who actually abused children.

      I can't help but wonder if it wouldn't be true here; if the information can't be obtained any other way, would censoring it be more or less likely to encourage others to obtain the information in a similar manner? We're a long way from shedding the need for data from real human patients.

    33. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      You flipped the target of the argument. I couldn't give a shit about the existence of the Nazis (anymore) or the Chinese government. What is relevant here is the existence of us as a species healthy as a result of research which was already conducted.

      By throwing it out you're not punishing the Chinese government. You're punishing the people who live due to the scientific advances. You're punishing the people who died by making their deaths irrelevant.

    34. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But it removes the perverse incentive of the need to supply research "subjects" from the calculation when sentencing prisoners, which should properly only include evidence of guilt, the letter of the law, and mitigating factors, NOT "we need another pancreas!"

    35. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by couchslug · · Score: 1

      May? Why would China care since they can use the research internally. to their own advantage?

      The idea a country without ethics would be impressed by the exposure same is absurd. They don't do research to help the world, just a few billion of their own people.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    36. Re:What about the illegal autopsies in England... by HornWumpus · · Score: 1

      It's clearly flawed data, but for decades searches were called off based on the survival estimates the Nazis generated.

      The world has learned more since. e.g. They're not dead until they are 'warm and dead'.

      It's revisionism to say the data wasn't used.

      --
      John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
  2. Data is data. Make it mean something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    A while ago, a bunch of Nazi scientists did some very, very unethical research. It was the kind of thing that would turn most people's stomachs. But rather than throw it away, we kept it, and for two reasons.
    First, it was new data. They studied things that nobody else was studying (with reason) and medical science learned a lot from this.
    Secondly, throwing it away would mean that those who died during this died for nothing. At least this way their sacrifice led to something meaningful.
    Provided that these studies are accurate, they shouldn't be rejected, purely because we don't like the source. Sure, stop more abuses and ensure that there aren't any more studies in this vein, but the data exists, don't just throw it away. Keeping it means that we know more and there's less call to repeat these studies!

    1. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The thing is you don't need to do the data collection this way. There was another way. In wartime under the NAZIS yes, there were expediency focuses that eroded ethics entirely. To allow that NOW, simply because it's cheaper or quicker?

      Is to basically take a step towards being the nazis again in a small way. The research isn't revolutionary in this case and can be repeated with scientific method and ethics intact at the same time. For that reason it will be rejected.

      And repeated. Without the dead Chinese slaves as the data set.

    2. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by ezdiy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The studies were observational of outcomes of transplantations already done, it's not like the study authors incentivized the chinese corrupt hospital system to procure more illegal transplants. Equating them to nazis, who actually butchered people with science as motivator (or pretext) seems more like an alarmist ruse rather than anything to do with ethics.

      This boycott won't change anything about unethical transplantations being done because the study is not an incentive for being unethical, they merely piggyback on shitty things which are happening.

      More so it is hilarious that "professor of ethics" should be keenly aware of arrows of causality in ethics. Exploiting something for can't otherwise change isn't unethical, on the contrary, it's making the best out of a shitty situation.

    3. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think the problem with that reasoning (and yes, it is a fact that the U.S. used that data from WWII)
      is that there's an assumption that the data could not have been obtained through other means of
      legitimate scientific research; so it's okay to use the data - we didn't cause their suffering, amiright?
      And that data is "helping" people. And that's the fallacy. This is a difficult ethical dilemma.

      There has to be a line between right and wrong and we should (as human beings) never allow the
      crossing of that line to be rationalized or blurred - or profit from it.

      This is different than surgeons perfecting their skill in a war zone, or after a natural disaster, or an
      accident. Although the war zone is questionable as Bush used this to trial new military technology
      without regard to the cost of American lives and human suffering. We know this now as there was
      never any WMDs and intelligence indicated and communicated those facts directly to the president.
      A perfect example of where the checks and balances failed the American people.

      Also, the Chinese (government) has a completely different value of human life than Americans.
      They value the living, so it's okay to kill someone to keep another alive; Americans graciously accept
      what happens (if they can get a transplant, of course they're fine with that but never at the cost of
      taking another's life). Doesn't mean Chinese are "evil," they just have a different belief system in place.

      CAP === 'glanced'

    4. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "it's not like the study authors incentivized the chinese corrupt hospital system to procure more illegal transplants." ACTUALLY IT IS VERY CLOSE TO THAT.

    5. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by drinkypoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Provided that these studies are accurate, they shouldn't be rejected, purely because we don't like the source

      The fact is that accepting these studies encourages them to murder more people for their organs, which is something we know they are doing.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Snotnose · · Score: 2

      The fact is that accepting these studies encourages them to murder more people for their organs, which is something we know they are doing [wikipedia.org].

      The fact is, they're going to do it anyway. The Chinese place a much lower value on human life than we do. We can ignore their papers, but all that does is let scientists around the world without our ethics to learn stuff much faster than we will.

      Larry Niven had the concept of, shit, don't remember what he called it. But 3 speeding tickets made you an organ donor. The Chinese aren't too far from that.

      Remember, it wasn't that long ago that they not only shot people in the back of the head, but they billed the family for the price of the bullet (I should check Snopes on that....)

    7. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, they do NOT perform lethal injections in "the van." The convict is sedated so that
      blood tests can be performed, and if everything is hunky-dory, then, while the convict is still
      sedated, the appropriate organ harvest is performed. This ensures that the product(s) are
      not tainted by any poison. The person dies from the harvest; there is no "lethal injection."

      CAP === 'rivets'

    8. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      I'm one of those people who benefited from Nazi medical research. At this point it's too late to really do anything about it, it's all been integrated into other research and the like, but if it was more recent, based on potentially compromised research...

      I don't know, honestly. I don't want to encourage it, I don't want those lives to have been lost completely for nothing, and I don't want other people besides myself to suffer when they could be treated.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    9. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by ezdiy · · Score: 0

      The whole point is actually provide the causative link to mark a research as unethical.

      TFA provided none, just alarmist rambling. "We know they'll kill more people because of the research because they kill people for other reasons, such as the huge sums paid on the hospital grey market" is no proof, not even indirect one as you're equating huge sums for an organ with puny researcher who only does a write up on (medical, not sociopolitical) outcomes of doing that.

    10. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by ezdiy · · Score: 1

      Benefit from past unethical research as such is fine. Nazi germany also enabled delta-V, thus satellites. If you use GPS, the blood is on your hands. One needs to be careful with it though - sometimes you hear "its ok to do unethical research because innoncent (or ubermench) parties can benefit from it". Which is obviously stupid argument (and one used by nazi researchers sometimes back then).

    11. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Nazi germany" != Von Braun, you fucking retard. There was nothing unethical about his rocket engine development AND IT WAS DURING WARTIME. You're a moron for conflating the situations.

    12. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2

      And while we can't know for sure if research drives more executions (than mere transplantation does) the West sure as hell doesn't need to be glorifying such studies, and rather journals should forbid publishing and apply other pressures to make the scientists there, and their government minders, stop doing this via embarrassment.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    13. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by PPH · · Score: 1

      The fact is that accepting these studies encourages them to murder more people for their organs, which is something we know they are doing.

      Prisoners' organs were not harvested for the purpose of doing research. They were taken to perform transplants. Disqualifying some ancillary research isn't going to slow or stop their practice of taking organs from prisoners sentenced to death. Prohibiting non-voluntary organ harvesting probably won't slow down the rate of executions either. Prisoners will just go to their graves with all of their organs.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    14. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, they were doing both and have done both. Transplanting itself can be research depending on specifics. You know nothing about this, why opine?

    15. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Larry Niven had the concept of, shit, don't remember what he called it.

      He called it organlegging.

      But 3 speeding tickets made you an organ donor. The Chinese aren't too far from that.

      They've executed people for cheating on their taxes, and they imprison people and set them to labor for practicing Christianity — not that I'm a fan of that, but I'm even less a fan of persecution of people for ideas.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    16. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Obfuscant · · Score: 2

      and apply other pressures to make the scientists there, and their government minders, stop doing this via embarrassment.

      If the Chinese government has not been embarrassed by the public revelation of the justifications they are using to execute prisoners, is it really sane to think they'll be embarrassed because a few journals won't publish research that studies the results of transplant operations of organs harvested from the dead?

    17. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by dryeo · · Score: 2

      Organlegging was illegally harvesting organs, as in kidnapping and killing someone rather then doing it as a legal execution.
      In a world with organ transplants perfected, there was a high demand for organs, including illegally gotten organs. Note that the people democratically voted in all the execution laws in that universe.
      How many people would pay for an illegally gotten organ today if it would prolong their life? I'd bet a sizeable minority. Same with voting in the death penalty for various crimes if it meant more organs.

      In our universe, in the 19th century, supplying cadavers for dissection was a big enough business that at least one gang did similar, rather then grave robbing, killed people. The leader of that gangs skeleton is hanging up in some university after the owner was executed and used for dissection.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    18. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by dryeo · · Score: 1

      Slave labour, with very shitty conditions for the labourers.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    19. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nothing unethical, eh?
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun#Slave_labor

      Ok, this was production, not development. You can split hairs if you want, it doesn't make the victims any less dead.

    20. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by PPH · · Score: 1

      You know nothing about this, why opine?

      Because I can read.

      --
      Have gnu, will travel.
    21. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by ezdiy · · Score: 3

      > the West sure as hell doesn't need to be glorifying such studies
      Because the studies were public, a meta-study could be made approximating the real number of organ harvesting using this as a source. Remove incentives of chinese academia to publish in western academia because "you talk about bad things! therefore you are bad too and we'll have none of that!", and you live in the dark.

      It's far more likely one could actually cause harm by knee-jerk "sure as hell doesn't need to be glorifying such studies". Pointing out the issue because it's laid out in clear *is* useful, moral stances that bad things shouldn't be in the public view just because they're bad - definitely isn't.

    22. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Secondly, throwing it away would mean that those who died during this died for nothing. At least this way their sacrifice led to something meaningful.

      While it's true that the word "sacrifice" has several definitions, the word is most often used to imply that the person who is giving something up is doing so voluntarily.

      If someone chooses to participate in an experiment, and ends up being harmed as a result, then it's appropriate to talk about honoring their sacrifice (respecting their wishes, expressed via their willing participation, that the results of the experiment be used to better our common understanding.)

      But we can't say what, for example, Mengele's victims would have wished for. Some would have wished for their information to be used; others would have wanted it destroyed. We can't know, because the choice was taken away from them.

      You may argue that the possible benefit to humanity is more important than the ethical principles. In some cases you might even be right. But remember that you're not honoring the wishes of the victims by doing so, but the wishes of the torturers.

    23. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hilarious yet completely predictable that the autistic Slashdot audience upvoted you to 5 while the responses pointing out the very real perverse incentives you attempt to handwave away languish at 1.

      Anyone with any knowledge of world criminal justice systems know that they constantly fall into this kind of moral trap. Even the supposedly "fair" system of the U.S. is structured to maximize sentences for even petty offences, particularly by minority males, in order to provide an essentially enslaved, taxpayer-subsidized work force to corporations engaging in the for-profit prison system.

      Do you really think the Chinese system, without things like Habeas Corpus, guaranteed representation, the right to confront your accuser, guaranteed appeals, prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishments, etc. is somehow more immune to corruption, co-opting, and outright capture by those who stand to benefit by unjust prosecutions?

    24. Re:Data is data. Make it mean something. by cyberchondriac · · Score: 1

      You beat me to it, I was going to mention Niven. I think it was part of his Gil Hamilton series, the guy with the psychokinetic arm.
      It's super creepy that this has essentially become a real thing, but sanctioned and committed by a huge government rather than a black market gang.

      --

      Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
  3. What a bunch of by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    animals.

  4. Why? by r2kordmaa · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Unless the papers were on ethics of organ translation, why would they need to be retracted, is the research any less valid just because research involved unethically obtained organs? Papers usually get retracted if the contents are bs, fabrication or plagiarism, not for an ethics problem with the research itself. Science is practical like that, what is true is true, what is false is false, ethics are a completely separate topic.

    1. Re:Why? by neoRUR · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I guess you have never done any Human Subject testing. All testing in the US has to have IRB approval (https://www.fda.gov/RegulatoryInformation/Guidances/ucm126420.htm) and the scientists doing the research need to have gone through the IRB course and sign that they can't not use data that is not been submitted and reviewed prior to experiments so that they don't do something illegal and un-ethical, like the Stanford Prison Experiment. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment).

      Yes maybe some good data came from that, but the means do not justify the ends, same thing applies when doing testing on animals.

    2. Re:Why? by Shikaku · · Score: 1

      This is not the first case of unethical data: there's a lot of valuable scientific data from the Holocaust and Unit 731, but those were taken after the fact that those groups got destroyed then after they got that data. I think the bigger question is "can there be justice for the people harmed by this?" and "how do we move forward without enabling this behavior even more?"

    3. Re:Why? by sexconker · · Score: 0

      The hubbub about the Stanford Prison Experiment is bogus. You know that, right?

      All participants could have left at any time. All they had to do was say "I want to end the experiment.". They all knew it.
      The truth is they all wanted to get paid, and when the diabetic dude died they needed to concoct a story that absolved them of any guilt in the matter.

    4. Re:Why? by ezdiy · · Score: 1

      Ethics in research (or anywhere) boils down to: Are you incentivizing something unethical by your research? Then yes, your research is unethical - because you're an enabler. (early) Nuclear physics is unethical. Human subject testing (without their consent) is unethical. Even animal subject testing is unethical.

      But merely observing something unethical in your study, even if you provided no incentive for it to happen? Crying wolf there smells more like a storm in a teacup at best, hidden motives at worst. For instance, someone NOT wanting for these studies serving as blatant proxy reporting the amount of actual organ harvesting in china.

      But always, It's only those who make unethical things *happen* are the unethical ones. Yes, it can be researchers testing on animals, but not researches who report on human animals harming other humans if the research study itself wasn't used as pretext/root cause for that.

    5. Re:Why? by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1

      The ends justifying means argument does not apply here. The idea behind the argument is that the net gain shall outweigh the costs of obtaining something. This might be an argument against future research conducted in the mentioned manner. It does not however, logically apply to something already performed. Knowledge is not evil. The acts surrounding that knowledge are what may or may not be evil. To apply sentiment to the situation, it could be argued that to destroy the knowledge gained would in and of itself be an act that cheapens the lives lost to acquire it.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    6. Re:Why? by ezdiy · · Score: 1

      Stanford prison toes the line, IMO. The researchers DID provide incentive for shitty things to happen - they promised money to participants to act unethical on their behalf, essentially.

      Regardless, this is an interesting discussion of role of free will in capitalism in general - aka is buying product of wage slave labor unethical? Everyone in the supply chain technically agreed to it, buuuut....

    7. Re:Why? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      What (political rhetoriticians in) the West view as the "race to the bottom", people literally living a dirt-floor existence view as climbing up...way way up... to a proper floor.

      Much like the West did 150 years ago with industrialization.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    8. Re:Why? by guruevi · · Score: 1

      Yet, there are many, many instances where people violate their IRB guidelines and yet we don't throw away all that data either, we just amend the IRB to include the established practice, even if it's ethically dubious. Most studies will even have language like: once the data is collected, even if you retract consent or an oversight body discontinues this study, we'll continue using the data anyway for various purposes.

      The main point of contention here is that the Chinese Government and Chinese culture in general has a different culture on ethics and human life. As far as the political far-left and the right in the US are removed from each other on the ethics of ending a human life (whether right before or right after birth or ending a long bout of suffering), so also is the US and China removed from each other on the value of the individual as opposed to the 'good of society' and criminals etc as opposed to non-criminals.

      There are dissenting voices in China too, since adopting the 'western' cultures gives a better chance at personal improvement and riches but many 'elders' in China are complaining that this focus on individualism is destroying their culture and community.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    9. Re:Why? by dryeo · · Score: 1

      There were times it did cross the line into slave labour. Paying a dollar a day and charging $7.25 room and board a week with debtors prison being a real thing. Even charging $6 a week is pretty close to slavery when those fees were hidden when the worker signed up.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    10. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Papers usually get retracted if the contents are bs, fabrication or plagiarism, not for an ethics problem with the research itself

      Funny you mention plagiarism, because that is an ethics problem. What is true is true, what is false is false, why should we care who actually did the experiments or wrote the paper?

      Using data from human subjects without their consent is rather akin to plagiarism, actually, if you think about it.

    11. Re: Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Itâ(TM)s nice that US has such rules and I am glad I live in the US. But the issue at hand is all in China where such rules donâ(TM)t apply.

    12. Re:Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "they promised money to participants to act unethical on their behalf"

      "role of free will in capitalism"

      "is buying product of wage slave labor unethical?"

      You are answering your own questions and you already know the correct answer, but you are scared aren't you. Now get back to work doing unethical things otherwise we will boot your ass back to the homeless ghetto.

  5. Why stop this? by WindBourne · · Score: 0

    The far lefties KNOW that China is unethical in many things. This is just more of the same that they continue to back. Basically, it is not much different than how Hitler, Tojo, Mao and Stalin operated.

    --
    I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
    1. Re:Why stop this? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 2

      The far lefties KNOW that China is unethical in many things.

      Yes: everyone knows that.

      This is just more of the same that they continue to back.

      There's no outrage quite like manufactured outrage. Go on point to when someone you consider "the left" supported China. Bonus points for telling me that China is communist without actually showing when someone supported them.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
  6. Chinese Science by sycodon · · Score: 2

    While most is purloined from elsewhere, the rest of it is tainted in the same way Nazi Science is tainted.

    China is a Totalitarian Communist Dictatorship with a facade of a Capitalist Economy.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Chinese Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Major scientific journals should simply reject articles from mainland China for 10 years given the habitual bad behavior / bad data / tainted data in such papers.

      Child labor only got addressed when buyers of manufactured goods inspected the factories. Same goes for science papers.

    2. Re:Chinese Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly - vote with your wallet, vote with your peer review. ETHICS ARE FUCKING IMPORTANT AND FUCK ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE OFF TO CHINA. These Trump idiots crave authoritarian dystopia so badly, I say give it to them.

    3. Re:Chinese Science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Everything I don't like is Trump"

  7. Nazi medical research ethics by Xenolith0 · · Score: 2

    For those posting with comments along the lines of: "Why doesn't it matter if innocent slaves were tortured, the science is valid?!"

    Ethics in medical (any) science is a very important, and we shouldn't encourage third-world dictatorships to create more suffering by accepting unethical medical research.

    https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ethics-of-using-medical-data-from-nazi-experiments

    Holocaust survivor Susan Vigorito found the use of the word "data" a sterile term. She was 3½ when she and her twin sister, Hannah, arrived at Auschwitz. They were housed for an entire year in Mengele's private lab in a wooden cage a yard and a half wide. Without anesthetic, Mengele would repeatedly scrape at the bone tissue of one of her legs. Her sister died from repeated injections to her spinal column. She claims that she is the real data, the living data of Dr. Mengele.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4822534/

    1. Re: Nazi medical research ethics by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      The idea that harvesting organs without consent is "unethical" is dubious at best. Our opposition to it in the west stems entirely from absurd religious beliefs.

      Even if I were to accept as given that it actually is unethical, it would be almost inconsequentially so. It certainly doesn't compare to the kind of unethical experiments which many of the others here are discussing. At worst it's just theft; a poor reason to reject data which will almost invariably save lives.

    2. Re: Nazi medical research ethics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The idea that harvesting organs without consent is "unethical" is dubious at best" - Great. Shoot this c6gummer faggot and take his worthless brain for my dog to fuck around with in the yard. It's not doing much as is. He's ok with it.

    3. Re: Nazi medical research ethics by Xenolith0 · · Score: 1

      There's nothing religious about it. Organs ain't cheap, there's good money to be made in finding "creative" (murderous) ways to acquire them. Harvesting organs without consent gives everyone involved in the harvesting a reason to murder people for those organs.

    4. Re: Nazi medical research ethics by c6gunner · · Score: 1, Flamebait

      Organs ain't cheap because so many fuckheads don't consent, or can't be bothered to fill out a donation form. You take away the consent requirement, the supply increases, the price plummets, and there's no longer a reason to murder anyone.

      Of course your entire line of logic kinda sucks anyway. An action doesn't become unethical just because criminals might engage in it. That's like arguing that driving a car is unethical because cars aren't cheap and you driving around in one encourages carjacking.

    5. Re: Nazi medical research ethics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Should we question whether the prisoners were going to be executed or not, or should we question what was going to be done with their remains after execution?
      It would seem likely that the executions were going to occur, and the alternative disposal would be what? cremate the bodies regardless of the condition of various organs which could help people in need?

      Is the righteous outcry more about the reasons those people were imprisoned and destined for execution, rather than the method of disposal of their remains or the research obtained from them? Cos that is an entirely different issue which should be taken up in the correct political arena, rather than hurling anti-China hatred about at scientists and those using their research material.

    6. Re:Nazi medical research ethics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yup, and the Japanese did the same thing during WW2 as well.

    7. Re: Nazi medical research ethics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The idea that harvesting organs without consent is "unethical" is dubious at best" - Great. Shoot this c6gummer faggot and take his worthless brain for my dog to fuck around with in the yard. It's not doing much as is. He's ok with it.

    8. Re:Nazi medical research ethics by Nethemas+the+Great · · Score: 1
      There are two ideas you bring forth:
      1. Knowledge can be good or evil dependent upon how that knowledge was obtains
      2. Refusing knowledge because of unethical origins will deter the future gathering of knowledge by the same means

      For the first point, the example used to illustrate this while disturbing and graphic, is but an emotional appeal. Knowledge does not have an ethical character. It is a comprehension of reality that cannot be altered by how it was obtained. That the sky is blue does not vary dependent upon whether it is witnessed through the eyes of a free citizen or those stolen from an innocent slave.

      Point two makes the assumption that our rejection of knowledge obtained by immoral actors will deter further immoral acts. I would suggest that it is quite probable that Mengele would have conducted his research regardless of whether he knew the allies would later reject knowledge derived from it.

      Rejecting knowledge does not make you more ethical, it makes you less knowledgeable. Rejecting knowledge does not demonstrate the value of the lives of the victims, it simply results in nothing being gained for the sacrifice.

      --
      Two of my imaginary friends reproduced once ... with negative results.
    9. Re:Nazi medical research ethics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An appeal not to be moved by empathy and to follow an utilitarian approach? Here's a though for you to ponder:

      If these people don't bother to put in place and enforce ethical procedures, how do you know they bother to follow safe research practices and you can trust their results?

      (Posting anon to avoid undoing previous moderation)

    10. Re: Nazi medical research ethics by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are fucking stupid.

      It's not religion, it's property. My body is my body, even if I'm dead. I get to decide what happens to it.

      If you don't believe your property is your property, give me all your money now. Why? Because I said so.

    11. Re: Nazi medical research ethics by c6gunner · · Score: 1

      It's not religion, it's property. My body is my body, even if I'm dead. I get to decide what happens to it.

      That's fine; I'm perfectly ok with the doctors asking your lifeless corpse whether it has any objections to organ donation.

  8. Crybaby nazi incel whines about "the left" again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fox News at 11. Someday, someone will find the cure for crybaby traitor Republicanism. 45 caliber would be a good starting point, then go up from there. We will find a way to help them to stop crying like pussy little traitor bitches. Amen.

  9. Um, doesn't make sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ok, so the work was done using illegal, questionable sources, etc. But the work is done, is the science bad? If the science is good, there is ZERO reason to remove the research. Just stop doing the bad stuff and penalize the researchers, but there is no reason at all to lose the knowledge gained.

    1. Re:Um, doesn't make sense by itsdapead · · Score: 1

      Ok, so the work was done using illegal, questionable sources, etc. But the work is done, is the science bad?

      There's a Pratchett quote along the lines of "The thing about criminals is that they don't obey the law - its part of the job description."

      If someone thinks (or was coerced into thinking) that it is OK to torture people, harvest organs without consent etc. then they're not going to blink about falsifying data, especially in an environment where failing to get the result that your superior expects is tantamount to volunteering to be the next experimental subject.

      Haven't looked at the organ transplant study in detail (hey, this is an internet forum!) but - for example - if the organs came from a dubious source, how sure can you be that the kidneys supposedly from a healthy 18 year-old woman who was hit by a bus didn't actually come from a 55 year old male prisoner who died after snorting cocaine cut with rat poison?

      So, these sorts of data sources are fundamentally untrustworthy - without looking very, very carefully at how the data was gathered (in which case you'll probably end up giving your research students PTSD).

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  10. Worst part is... by XArtur0 · · Score: 2

    that many of those victims only crime was to be against the government doing/allowing stuff like this to happen.

    Sadly, only Chinese people have any real chance of stopping the Chinese government.

  11. Re:Stop dealing with China. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, it is. There's a reason nobody goes to China for medical procedures. It doesn't matter how much cheaper it is - nobody trusts Chinese, for good reason.

  12. what you want by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't understand, whats the problem? They got results and money, is there anything else? You wanted this, why you complain now

    1. Re: what you want by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You are 100% Chinese, especially from the way you write.

    2. Re: what you want by yfeefy · · Score: 1

      Come on, man. The Chinese people are the victims of this.

    3. Re: what you want by Headw1nd · · Score: 1

      And also the perpetrators.

    4. Re: what you want by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are well over a billion leople living in China. Only about 6% of them are members of the Communist party that dominates the government and installed the corrupt justice system that allows abuses like thus to happen.

      The vast majority of Chinese (the victims) would prefer a more just system, but its kinda hard when you are living in abject poverty and those in power have .ore money than God, not to mention planes, tanks, and nukes.

  13. retraction for political purposes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The data is public and I assure you will be reviewed and referenced, the difference is with public dismissal it means they will get no credentials or accolade (academics, even socialist ones love accolades). So it's a win win (except for the prisoners), the data has been published, but the unethical research will not be recognized.

  14. Re:Stop dealing with China. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The US isn't much better.

    Obvious China shill

  15. Continuing to allow this does exactly that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Organ harvesting from a Nazi-like Chinese government exists, and is going on. Discarding the research sends a message the practice must die out, and good ethical science will replace it like it was never there.

    Continuing to allow this does exactly that. It continues to allow prisoners to have their organs unethically harvested in a macabre dystopian 3rd world manner.

    You're an apologist. You should have your organs harvested.

    1. Re: Continuing to allow this does exactly that. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree, but wait until I need them.

  16. Here is a better Idea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Instead of throwing out the research, black out the reasearcher on the paper. Throw said researcher out of the scientific community so that they may never publish again. Then honor the victim by using his sacrifice to save lives.
    Seriously people are so illogical these days. I can even tell you why other researchers are keen on this. Once research is thrown out, the conclusions are up for grabs, you can get your name out by doing a study with predetermined results and your name ends up in the history books. All on plagiarized theses. Hows that for ethical?!

  17. And now you know by theCat · · Score: 1

    And know you know how the mega-wealthy intend to live forever. Let's see ... an old rich dude dies today of liver failure, or an impoverished "prisoner" guilty of somehow offending TPTB dies today. Decisions, decisions ...

    --
    =^..^= all your rodent are belong to us
    1. Re: And now you know by Jesus+H+Rolle · · Score: 1

      Let's see ... an old rich dude dies today of liver failure, or an impoverished "prisoner" guilty of somehow offending TPTB dies today.

      Misread as TPB. anakata's coming for you!

  18. pics and vids by presidenteloco · · Score: 1

    (unaltered, provably non-deepfake, good chain of custody) or it didn't happen.

    Rule of the Internet, remember?

    --

    Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  19. ezdiy needs his brain harvested I guess. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Unethical practices and procedures = unethical research and products. You're a moron. It's ok that you want to be a moron, there is an entire GOP made just for you that doesn't actually value human life either, nor ethics. You'll fit right in.

    Meanwhile if someone should find value in your organs, harvest away right? I'm all for your decision - over your own body. Decide you want to be research material and we'll cart you right off. Que problema? Done.

  20. discrepancy in number of executions by yfeefy · · Score: 1

    It sounds like not only does "P"RC execute more people than all others combined, but even the figure used for that most alarming conclusion appears to be grossly underestimated. Wikipedia says executions are "down" to "only" 12000 a year, but 60k-100k (hospital transplant data) - 10k (donors) transplants = 50k-90k "discrepancy" DISGUSTING PRC!! Assholes! I feel sorry rfor ank and file Chinese people who have to live with such a brutal, oppressive, realpolotiking, lying, and just SHITTY government.

    1. Re: discrepancy in number of executions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, I feel sorry for the Chinese who have to live under such a horrible government. Prisoners of conscience seem to be the most likely source of organs, the Wikipedia article makes for pretty horrifying reading, tens or hundreds of thousands of people being killed on demand, and other people arguing about what is ethical?

  21. This is MEDICINE we're talking about! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean wait until it needs YOUR organs. Or your mother's eyes. The problem with slippery ethical slopes is they don't tend to get better before they get much, much, much worse. This is MEDICINE we're talking about!

  22. "For fears that..." by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You mean no proof/argument is given, and they want to get rid of all the research?

    The worse part is even if they did, it wouldn't change anything. China would continue doing what they are doing, and continue just publishing their research in Chinese journals for their benefit.

  23. Executed Prisoners. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That includes multiple rapists, serial killers, etc. Falun Gong is a shell over insurrection, but it is nothing in comparison to hard criminals.

  24. I put my organ ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In a young Chinese girl. Is that part of this study?

    1. Re:I put my organ ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, you didn't kill her first. I hope...

  25. keyword: prisoners by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they have no rights. we need to start using some of our MILLIONS of wastes-of-space for scientific experiments too. instead we leve it up to libtards who would rather give rapists and murderers the easy life in comfy, luxury prisons like they do in failed europe.

  26. Prisoners of Conscience? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even IF China is using the organs of executed prisoners without their consent, and timing their executions for the convenience of wealthy clients who buy their organs... is there any real evidence that China is actually doing it to anyone who wouldn't have probably been sentenced to death had they been convicted of doing the exact same thing somewhere like Texas or Florida?

    China's government might be oppressive, but it has murderers, rapists, and street thugs, too. And it's not entirely unreasonable to expect that they have approximately 4 times as many as the US (in reality, I think they actually have about twice as many incarcerated criminals as the US, and execute about 2-3 times as many people per year as Texas and Florida did a decade ago... the point before the supply of lethal injection drugs dried up and both states had problems keeping up their formerly brisk schedules).

    Look at it this way... if the feds were going to execute Timothy McVeigh ANYWAY, wouldn't it have been even more deliciously BETTER if he went to his death knowing that his organs were all going to earmarked for people belonging to the ethnic groups he despised? It would be like one final, satisfying bitchslap on his way to the grave...

  27. or unit 731 by aepervius · · Score: 1

    Basically the US hide all war crime the japanese did at unit 731 in exchange of the results exclusively. Now THAT is unethical and immoral (the russian did something similar they gave slap of the hand prison penalty). As for prisoner... If you are doing death penalty , and there is no incentive to push for it solely for organ donation, then frankly I see as more ethical to enforce organ donation so that the condemned at least repay its debt to society, rather than let the organ rot just "because" some feel it more ethical. As if letting people on a list die is more ethical. That remind me of people wanting to stop donation of anancephallic baby organ to baby on organ transplant waiting list.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  28. Hmm by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slaves first shrimp and organs

  29. Vivisectionists will happily torture people too... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This is the inevitable result of allowing sociopaths to torture animals, day in and day out. Obviously they feel nothing when causing others unimaginable pain. So why would they stop with animals?

  30. Immoral Doctors? Shocking! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Next you'll tell me how DOCTORS conducted experiments on children in Nazi death camps. Shocking news!!

  31. China are communist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    China are Commies, it's in the name !!
    --
    WindBourne

  32. and your point is? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    A large amount if contemporary research is based on nazi experiments.

    It's almost like no one reads history books anymore.

  33. Unnecessary Waste is Unethical, Too by EndlessNameless · · Score: 1

    We cannot reverse what was done. If the scientists unwittingly used data from forced transplants, they are neither guilty nor complicit. If they knowingly violated ethical guidelines, they can be censured or blacklisted.

    We have two choices: whether or not we use this data in the future now that we know about its provenance, and whether or not we use the knowledge that was gained earlier.

    I believe that this call for retraction is an overstep and a mistake. Censure the scientists who knowingly benefited from organ harvesting, but do not purge this knowledge from the scientific record (which is essentially what a retraction does). Pushing science and medicine backwards has a cost as well, and that cost ultimately falls on everyone.

    --

    ---
    According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
  34. Organ harvesting by the Communist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes it sill happens. After the Falun gong arrests and executions the quality of of organs coming out of china improved dramatically. The Chinese Communist deny they are harvesting organs from executed prisoners.
    Comparing the Nazi tests from 80+ years ago to a war crime currently being committed is misguided.

  35. Because YOU would be evil for the harvesting. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Because YOU would be evil for the harvesting.

  36. Godwin's Law by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    Finally an example of where it doesn't really apply. This is some appalling stuff. All of it should be thrown out.

    As someone pointed out, while the previous example doesn't exist anymore so the data can be used, whereas the current example does exist and we shouldn't be encouraging/condoning this behavior and should be actively censuring them.