Withholding Proven Treatment in Clinical Research

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Abstract
The use of placebo-controlled trials began just before World War II, and the Declaration of Helsinki, which arose from the Nuremberg Code, was formulated after the war. Placebo-controlled studies soon became the gold standard of evidence, and the Declaration of Helsinki became the gold standard of research ethics. However, the practices of the first collided with the principles of the second, and researchers and ethicists have been trying to resolve this problem ever since. The debate over placebo-controlled trials is implicitly and inextricably linked to concern about withholding treatment — specifically, withholding proven or standard treatment — in the course . . .