American Journal of Bioethics 2 (2):3 – 9 (2002)
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Abstract |
The leading ethical position on placebo-controlled clinical trials is that whenever proven effective treatment exists for a given condition, it is unethical to test a new treatment for that condition against placebo. Invoking the principle of clinical equipoise, opponents of placebo-controlled trials in the face of proven effective treatment argue that they (1) violate the therapeutic obligation of physicians to offer optimal medical care and (2) lack both scientific and clinical merit. We contend that both of these arguments are mistaken. Clinical equipoise provides erroneous ethical guidance in the case of placebo-controlled trials, because it ignores the ethically relevant distinction between clinical trials and treatment in the context of clinical medicine and the methodological limitations of active-controlled trials. Placebo controls are ethically justifiable when they are supported by sound methodological considerations and their use does not expose research participants to excessive risks of harm.
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DOI | 10.1162/152651602317533523 |
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References found in this work BETA
The Ethical Analysis of Risk.Charles Weijer - 2000 - Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 28 (4):344-361.
Placebo Orthodoxy in Clinical Research I: Empirical and Methodological Myths.Benjamin Freedman, Charles Weijer & Kathleen Cranley Glass - 1996 - Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 24 (3):243-251.
Placebo Orthodoxy in Clinical Research I: Empirical and Methodological Myths.Benjamin Freedman, Charles Weijer & Kathleen Cranley Glass - 1996 - Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 24 (3):243-251.
Citations of this work BETA
Questioning the Methodologic Superiority of 'Placebo' Over 'Active' Controlled Trials.Jeremy Howick - 2009 - American Journal of Bioethics 9 (9):34-48.
For the Common Good: Philosophical Foundations of Research Ethics.Alex John London - 2021 - New York, NY, USA: Oxford University Press.
Ethical Review of Health Systems Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Conceptual Exploration.Adnan A. Hyder, Abbas Rattani, Carleigh Krubiner, Abdulgafoor M. Bachani & Nhan T. Tran - 2014 - American Journal of Bioethics 14 (2):28-37.
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