There are all types of research so done upon human beings, in regards to, for instance, pharmaceutical drugs being developed, as well as psychology studies so needed to learn more about the human psyche, so performed upon humans, of which some of these things so done, will be necessarily intense in its effect upon those subjects. Regrettably, the United States has some rather troubling history in regards to using human beings, for such tests as this; in which, for example, incarcerated people, or those that have historically been treated as less than human, have been utilized as unwitting test subjects for drugs that were known to be harmful or problematic, or have been actually injected with substances known to be damaging to one’s health, or have been provided surreptitiously with drugs that addle the mind, of which, these subjects, were never not only not fully informed of such, but typically weren’t ever informed, at all.
The most important thing when it comes to human beings so being utilized for these types of tests, is that they be fully informed about the nature and the intent of the program, and even the sponsors of such, to begin with. To the extent that such cannot be fully disclosed because it would compromise the purpose, for instance, of a particular psychological test, then those subjects need to be informed of such, after their involvement. After all, when the very point of such research is for the benefit of humankind, then it doesn’t make any real sense, that humans should suffer for having been a research subject, but rather they need to be fully knowledgeable of the perils of such, and must additionally give their voluntary consent without coercion to participate -- along with the need of having an independent party, confirming that all this has been accomplished in an ethical manner.
There isn’t any real debate, that in order to determine the actual efficacy of potential pharmaceutical drugs, that independent tests utilizing humans will need to be made, but in regards to those tests, there has to be some strict protocols in place, to protect those taking such drugs, from any lasting harm, as soon as it becomes pretty obvious that the drug in question, creates more harm, then benefit. So too, the human mind and psyche, can easily be damaged through experimental research good awry, in which in fairness to the subjects, there has to be robust regulations in place to address, these very important and meaningful issues.
Finally, research labs, universities, and all those that look the part of professional researchers have an ethical obligation to disclose to all those that volunteer to be a subject of a particular research project, where their actual monetary funding originates from. That is to say, funding so provided to research labs, can come from a multitude of different sources, and when that source, in particular, has a profit motive behind it, there may well be some additional risk involved to those volunteering, in the sense, that those conducting the experiment, have pretty much a vested interest to see that the results, thereof, favor those that provided the funding for it, and therefore those researchers may well be inclined to push things further as well as to make adjustments on the fly, that endangers those that are its volunteers, all in service to the hand that feeds well those researchers.