“Refrigerator Safety Study: Case Study Analysis”, 2013-06-14 (; similar):
[Discussion of debate in research ethics illustrating a difference between consequentialist and deontological ethics.]
In summary, the researchers intended to study the safety of fridge door design by trying various types of doors—luring small children into boxes with the door design and then closing it, and observing their behavior on closed circuit television…Secondly it is worth noting the real world impacts of this research—it was part of the evidence which underwrote the adoption of the modern magnetic seal fridge door as opposed to the modification suggested by manufacturers at the time, namely the much cheaper introduction of a catch on the inside that children could use to release the door internally. This, along with other activities, arguably contributed to a decrease in the death rate of children stuck in fridges and freezers from about 2 per million in 1960 to less than 0.5 per million in 1981 in the US1 (1985). That is a substantial decrease in deaths, particularly given how influential the US design was internationally; many, many lives have been saved by this research.
Nonetheless there are a number of substantial ethical challenges that need to be considered:
Is it necessary?…
Alternatively we might query whether the risks and harms involved in the research are justified…