A Wall Street Journal column offers some information and some caution about recruitment for clinical trials. Excerpt:
"Medical ethics experts warn there are still concerns when it comes to protecting participants, with alarming reports in recent years about deaths in clinical trials and persistent questions about conflicts of interest among researchers who have financial stakes in drugs or treatments. Karen Maschke, an associate for ethics and policy at the Hastings Center, a Garrison, N.Y., nonprofit bioethics research institute, warns that patients have to be sure that researchers aren't "overselling the benefits and playing down the risks." Recruiting should be carried out "so that it is clear there is no moral obligation to participate and people's decisions will be respected if they say no," she says."Posted by schwitz at May 14, 2008 09:33 AM | TrackBack