Regulations covering scientific experiments on human subjects
are strict. Subjects must give their informed, written consent,
and experimenters must submit their proposed experiments to
thorough examination by overseeing bodies. Scientists who
experiment on themselves can, functionally if not legally, avoid
the restrictions ① associated with experimenting on other people.
They can also sidestep most of the ethical issues involved:
nobody, presumably, is more aware of an experiment’s potential
hazards than the scientist who devised ② it. Nonetheless,
experimenting on oneself remains ③ deeply problematic. One
obvious drawback is the danger involved; knowing that it
exists ④ does nothing to reduce it. A less obvious drawback is
the limited range of data that the experiment can generate.
Human anatomy and physiology vary, in small but significant
ways, according to gender, age, lifestyle, and other factors.
Experimental results derived from a single subject are, therefore,
of limited value; there is no way to know ⑤ what the subject’s
responses are typical or atypical of the response of humans as a
group.
* consent: 동의 ** anatomy: (해부학적) 구조
*** physiology: 생리적 현상