Forbidden experiments?

Question

Are there any scientific experements that are so unethical that every scientist knows they may not be carried out under any curcumstances.

Answer 1

synthesizing drugs. testing chemicals/make-up on animals...
testing pharmaceuticals on people... etc etc

Answer 2

Any experiment done without the knowledge of human test subjects that introduces drugs, withholds drugs, or is expected to cause some type of harm is unethical - Read about the Nuremburg trials and the Japanese war crimes tribunals - both of those regimes tested drugs and chemical weapons on prisoners. The Nazis were particularly unethical, testing sterilzation techniques on concentration camp inmates, etc.
There are other unethical experiments as well - releasing engineered bio weapons into the outside world as an example (very secure testing should be done, if nothing else, to prepare for the 'other guy' doing something!)

"Every scientist" is probably not a reasonable test of the ethical context of performing an experiment - the Nazi's I alluded to probably considered themselves scientists, but most of us wouldn't call their experiments ethical - If World War II hadn't been going on, perhaps the A-Bomb test would be unethical (actually I consider above ground testing VERY unethical as that testing released tons of radionuclides into the atmosphere, failing my test!)

Answer 3

What is considered ethical is a very transient. Jenner for example intentionally exposed his gardeners twin sons to test the effectiveness of his new vaccine. He vaccinated one of the boys and did not thing for the other. He then exposed them both to smallpox. One boy died the other didn't. This was at the time consider ethical because the father was compensated for the death of his son.

Today any experiment that effects a persons health requires consent. Conducting an experiment for example on children or prisoners who cannot give their consent is no longer considered ethical.

Generally the process of peer review keeps most scientist ethical. If they conduct an unethical experiment no journal would publish it. If they don't publish they don't receive funding, without funding they cannot run experiments.