Online Discussion: Ethics in the Ambulance

June 14, 2006

The Chronicle of Higher Education has an online discussion going over the issue of emergency situation clinical trials.

In a dozen or so scientific studies since 1996, people have been serving as medical guinea pigs unwittingly. Under a federal rule, clinical trials may proceed without the subject’s informed consent if the situation is life-threatening, the patient is unconscious and cannot grant permission, and no family members are present to give consent. Does the chance to save lives now, and in the future, justify such studies?