<p>Agree with Cardinal Fang.</p>
<p>I agree that once the parents get used to the idea of a new baby, they start to grow to love that baby even before it arrives. I was eighteen when I got pregnant, and though my family was initially shocked and worried, they really did grow to love my baby even before they met her. This experiment was just incredibly, incredibly cruel.</p>
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<p>That’s actually the whole point of a “placebo,” isn’t it?</p>
<p>However, I agree with many previous posters that A. the boyfriend’s parents should have known about the “study” and B. while the “study” was otherwise a courageous act, I keep putting study in quotation because I don’t think this is intellectual as much as it would make for a good motivational speech or letter. Maybe we’ll all be wrong, but I don’t think that the idea that teens are mean to pregnant teens is all that enlightening.</p>
<p>There’s a current t.v. show that uses deceit and falsehoods, just to see how people react. It’s called “What Would You Do?” I refuse to watch it.</p>
<p>DwightD–in double-blind placebo experiments, the subjects know that they might be getting a placebo. There is no deception involved. They’re not being told they are given the real drug for sure; they know they may or may not be. that is entirely different.</p>
<p>Dumbest thing ever. If that were my son’s girlfriend I would have been livid. What a cruel thing to play with the emotions of his parents, along with friends and family. </p>
<p>What was she hoping to learn from this so called experiment? That getting pregnant out of wedlock while still in high school is frowned upon? Seriously? She didn’t know that? To be honest, it SHOULD be frowned upon. How many parents here would be happy to have their daughter in that situation? Or their son?</p>
<p>Pointless exercise as others have already stated. What I don’t understand is why this is a national news story.</p>
<p>Perhaps I’m slow here, but I don’t get the point. Also, I certainly don’t think teenage pregnancy is glorified by the media. Anyone here want to trade places with Bristol Palin or other single teenage mothers? No. Didn’t think so.</p>
<p>^^what was mentioned was a show I have never heard of on cable (Teenage Mom, maybe??) and Juno re: glorification of teenage pregnancy in the media…</p>
<p>I agree with others that the whole thing was pointless,misguided, as well as cruel. If I were the boy’s parents, I would be “furious”, “livid”, as others have stated.</p>
<p>I really thought this was a cheap trick when I first heard about it on the news and am amazed that so many adults thought this girl’s “project” was so courageous. Setting aside the sheer cruelty of letting the boy’s parents think they were going to be grandparents, how is this groundbreaking research?</p>
<p>Unwed, teenage, expectant high school honor students actually get villified for getting pregnant? Wow…brand-new information(/sarcasm)!</p>
<p>This study has <em>so</em> many big ethical red flags in it–even if it is “just” a high schooler, someone with professional research ethics know-how really should have been involved, in order to minimize harmful negative effects to the boy’s parents, the people whose quotes she read publically, with names attached, her classmates, etc. From a research ethics standpoint, yowza!</p>
<p>I agree with calimami…the boyfriend’s parents might have been relieved to find out that Gaby wasn’t actually pregnant, but perhaps they’re grieving now over the “loss” of a grandchild. They should have been informed from the beginning of this project and had the same consideration Gaby’s mother did.</p>
<p>I didn’t read the story fully, but I’m guessing the girl is in her late teens. At that age, I don’t fault her not fully assessing the ethical aspects of the study. She wanted to do a study - good attitude so far - picked a subject, jumped right in and went ahead. If indeed all those close to the couple who are not supposed to have known really didn’t, that’s unfortunate, and I would fault her; however, is it just possible that those actually did come to find out, but for the sake of the study, chose to portray themselves as uninformed? Perhaps the response from close family would be an area the study would have covered.
The things that I would have more issues with would be things like:
- Deliberately slanting the study based on a pre-determined agenda and downplaying some aspects and exaggerating others.
- Actually getting pregnant not because she wanted the baby but because she wanted to do a study.
I’d say, lets move on kid- it’s good that you’re interested in research, and for part 2, let’s get a pro to help you with the ethical and other aspects, and go forward.</p>
<p>OP, Do you really think about contributing to this young woman’s college fund? I don’t find any of this insightful at all. Just misguided and sad for the people that have been harmed by all of this. Maybe I’m missing something, but I find the whole thing appalling.</p>
<p>sevmom: I wasn’t serious but my thoughts and opinions do differ from most on this thread…I am in the teriwitt and Dad-of-3 camp…she’s a young girl who had good intentions; yes, they were not carried out well but to have thought about what others may have to go through in this type of situation and exploring it gives me pause; </p>
<p>I’m not sure my own empathetic daughter would sacrifice her own senior year to prove a point…
I’m actually sorry I started this thread, to be honest…I truly didn’t realize how angry everyone would be…</p>
<p>my bad</p>
<p>rodney,no problem with starting the thread(I’m usually pretty good at picking up when someone is kidding or not being serious about something so I apologize in not realizing that you were not being serious in your first post). I don’t think anybody is angry with you at all-just confused about how all of this could have gone so far,especially when there were adults who were apparently in on this. I’m pretty amazed that this went on for so long with so many people potentially negatively effected by it.</p>
<p>Think of all the lying she did over six months…how can that be justified?
Her point seems to be that life is very challenging for pregnant high school girls. I think everyone already knew this.</p>
<p>Anything for 15 minutes of fame.</p>
<p>I tend to think that glorification of teen pregnancy is a much bigger societal problem than hostility towards pregnant students.</p>
<p>It also strikes me that a much more interesting “study” would have been to enlist a fellow student as the putative father, and see whether HE was the object of similar remarks. </p>
<p>I also am stunned that the parents of the boyfriend were not let in on the secret. Extraordinarily cruel. It boggles the mind that no adult involved in this told her that she ought to tell them.</p>