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Introduction to Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 December 2009

Michael A. Santoro
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Michael A. Santaro
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
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Summary

INTRODUCTION

Pharmaceutical research is a complex social enterprise. It involves persons, commerce, and the advancement of medical knowledge, and it raises a broad array of ethical, scientific, and public policy issues. The chapters in this section analyze and suggest reforms in a number of these areas, including (1) the conflicts that arise between the profit maximization objectives of pharmaceutical companies and the ethical requirements of scientific research and medicine, particularly in regard to safety concerns and the diseases that are targeted; (2) the ethical safeguards for conducting research involving human subjects, particularly vulnerable subjects such as children and citizens of third world countries; (3) the patient's right to be included in drug trials that offer hope for terminal medical conditions, as well as the public health implications of including minority populations in drug trials; and (4) the scientific and ethical issues underlying stem cell research.

MEDICINE, SCIENCE, AND PROFIT MAXIMIZATION: AN UNEASY MIX

The dictates of medical and scientific ethics are sometimes at odds in clinical research, as for example in the administration of placebos to patients in control groups. Such conflicts arise because physicians are trained to cure and treat patients by administering therapeutic remedies, whereas scientists seek to establish facts and advance knowledge. For the most part, however, the advancement of knowledge and the betterment of patients ultimately are complementary goals.

It is the interjection of profit motivation into drug research that creates the greatest ethical challenges.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2005

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