A recent study of the effects of oxygen levels on premature infants has drawn criticism on ethical grounds. The lead researchers of the study, involving 1,316 premature infants, failing to adequately inform the children’s parents of “reasonably forseeable risks and discomforts of research participation.”

In the study, infants were given differing amounts of oxygen, and the parents had not been told that previous research suggested that more oxygen could be tied to blindness, and less oxygen could be tied to higher fatality rates. According to the Washington Post,

"The description of the experiment that parents read before deciding whether to enroll their babies downplayed the risks and emphasized possible benefits of getting a less-than-average amount of supplementary oxygen in the critical weeks after birth."

The study attempted to discover a happy medium between too much and too little oxgyen, with which premature infants would not be at risk for blindess and a higher fatality rate. In the course of the study, 130 babies died, and 91 babies developed an eye condition that could lead to blindness.

 

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