Science versus ethics

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The ultimate ethical standard among the medical profession is the Hippocratic Oath. The oath states: ‘I will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous’. It demands that the physician use every means possible to cure the patient's ailment—but does this apply in a clinical trial, which is understood to be experimental, not treatment? In a clinical trial, tension exists at the outset between gaining knowledge that can be used in the longer term to benefit the public health, and the basic right of the patient to receive treatment. > For physicians and researchers, the ‘gold standard’ in testing new drugs is a double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study in which some of the patients receive no treatment at all For the scientific profession, the ultimate standard is to produce results that withstand scrutiny. For physicians and researchers, the ‘gold standard’ in testing new drugs is a double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study in which some of the patients receive no treatment at all. These standards present an ethical dilemma as drug‐approval agencies tend to lean toward the need for clear scientific data, which is best gained when a drug is tested against a control, or placebo. Furthermore, it becomes harder to convince patients in First World countries to participate in drug trials when there may be a 30–50% chance of receiving only a sugar pill instead of a helpful medication. Placebo‐controlled trials are also, by necessity, larger than other types of trials, and hence more expensive. As a consequence, drug companies are looking increasingly to Third World countries to conduct placebo‐controlled trials, and therefore raising much dissent in the medical community, with cries of ‘medical imperialism’. This issue has heated up following the World Medical Association's …

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: