Clinical Trials A Practical Approach

Questions: Do you think that there are ethical issues with the clinical trial in regards to the people who are randomly selected for a placebo? Do you think that the monetary incentive (getting payed $3,000 per erolled subject) will cause the doctors to take unnecessary risk at the expense of the subject. How importiant is the consent process in the ethics of any clinical trials? Answers: 1. One of the two ethical concerns in a double blind placebo treatment is that the physician has a moral and professional duty to work towards the betterment of his patients (Pocock). Subjecting a type II diabetes patient to a placebo treatment is neither safe nor ethical. The test may induce organ damage due to increased diabetes in the patient. However, if validity and value of the treatment can be proven then this argument can be avoided. By offering a placebo treatment instead of a valid treatment Drs. Smith Jones will be deceiving their patients; which is not ethical either. 2. Monetary incentives can oftentimes compensate for ethical concerns. Here Drs. Smith and Jones are being offered $3,000 for each enrolled subject, which might give rise to greed. The doctors may ignore ethical concerns because the money is good. Not only that, the doctors may subject more and more patients to the trial although the level of consent is low. This is neither god for the research nor for the patients health concerns. Not only that, this attitude will also give rise to research related problems, which might give inconclusive results in the end. 3. The only way to conduct clinical trials as this one ethically is to keep the patients well being first (Rutherford and Roose). The doctors intention should be benevolent. The consent of the patient plays a great role in clinical trials with placebo groups. The patient should have all the information about his or her condition;, what works what does not work for him or her and why the doctor is choosing the trial for him or her. Whenever a patient asks the doctors any question about the nature and the effects of the placebo, the doctors will be ethically bound to answer them correctly. Whether the doctor approves or not, the patients consent should decide the course of action. References Pocock, Stuart J.Clinical trials: a practical approach. John Wiley Sons, 2013. Rutherford, Bret R., and Steven P. Roose. "A model of placebo response in antidepressant clinical trials."American Journal of Psychiatry(2013).