12 Mar Who Will Volunteer for Clinical Trials Now?

By Arthur Caplan, Medpage Today

Can anyone trust the U.S. government when it comes to their future health? For participants in clinical trials, the answer is a hard no.

The Trump administration’s decision to end funding for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in an abrupt halt to the clinical trials the agency funds overseas. Stopping a trial midstream violates core principles of medical ethics: It forces researchers to abandon participants — a mortal sin in medical ethics — and puts trial volunteers at considerable physical risk, a violation of the defining medical ethics requirement to “Do No Harm.” Read more…