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Patient Access to Experimental Drugs and AIDS Clinical Trial Designs: Ethical Issues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2009

Udo Schüklenk  and
Carlton Hogan
Udo Schüklenk
Affiliation:
Monash University Centre for Human Bioethics, Australia. is a German philosopher. He has published widely on philosophical aspects of AIDS, environmental issues of animal rights, and ethics of sexual orientation research.
Carlton Hogan
Affiliation:
He is Editor-in-Chief of PWALive magazine and works at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Biostatlstics. He publishes on AIDS-related issues in advocate newsletters, magazines, and scientific journals.
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Extract

Today's clinical AIDS research is in trouble. Principal investigators are confronted with young and frequently highly knowledgeable patients. Many of these people with AIDS (PWAs) are often unwilling to adhere to the trial protocols. These PWAs believe they are ethically justified in breaching trial protocols because they do not consider themselves true volunteers in such trials. PWAs argue that they do not really volunteer because existing legislation prevents them from buying and using experimental drugs or from testing alternative treatment strategies. Their only access to such agents is participation in clinical trials.

Type
Special Section: Rejuvenating Research Ethics
Information
Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , Summer 1996 , pp. 400 - 409
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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References

Notes

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