Ethics in Technical Communication: Historical Context for the Human Radiation Experiments

• Main Author: Audrain, Susan Connor
• Other Authors: Sims, Brenda R.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 2005
• Subjects: Communication of technical information > Moral and ethical aspects.; Medical records > Moral and ethical aspects.; Human experimentation in medicine > United States.; Radiation victims > United States.; Radioactive substances > Experiments > Moral and ethical aspects > United States.; Medical ethics > United States.; technical communication; human radiation experiments; ethics
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4820/

To illustrate the intersection of ethical language and ethical frameworks within technical communication, this dissertation analyzes the history and documentation of the human radiation experiments of the 1940s through the 1970s. Research propositions included clarifying the link between medical documentation and technical communication by reviewing the literature that links the two disciplines from the ancient period to the present; establishing an appropriate historiography for the human radiation experiments by providing a context of the military, political, medical, and rhetorical milieu of the 1940s to the 1970s; closely examining and analyzing actual human radiation experiment documentation, including proposals, letters, memos, and consent forms, looking for established rhetorical constructions that indicate a document adheres to or diverts from specific ethical frameworks; and suggesting the importance of the human radiation documents for studying ethics in technical communication. Close rhetorical analysis of the documents included with this project reveals consistent patterns of metadiscourse, passive and nominal writing styles, and other rhetorical constructions, including negative language, redundancies, hedges, and intensifiers, that could lead a reader to misunderstand the writer's original ethical purpose. Ultimately this project finds that technical communicators cannot classify language itself as ethical or unethical; the language is simply the framework with which the experimenters construct their arguments and communicate their work. Technical communicators can, however, consider the ethical nature of behavior according to specific ethical frameworks and determine whether language contributes to the behavior.