5 ms·
I feel this is unethical: "In this study, we’ll recruit 1,000 low-income families across the country at the time of their children’s birth. Half of the families
by swehner 11y ago
I feel this is unethical: "In this study, we’ll recruit 1,000 low-income families across the country at the time of their children’s birth. Half of the families will receive a large monthly income supplement, and half will receive a nominal monthly income supplement."
- saint_fiasco 11y agoHow is it different from giving half the test subjects a potential cure for cancer and the other half placebo? Scientist do that kind of thing all the time.
- cko 11y agoPlacebo doesn't mean "no treatment" - it could be the standard therapy, while an experimental drug is matched up against it.
- saint_fiasco 11y agoThen again, "nominal monthly income supplement" is the standard treatment for poverty in many places.
- cko 11y agoYup, so not unethical really. Especially when a higher monthly supplement might not have benefit over placebo.
- droffel 11y agoActually, I can recall reading about a few double-blind medical studies that were terminated early, because of this very reason. The efficacy of the treatment was so overwhelmingly positive in the variable group, that it was deemed unethical to not give the treatment to the control group. I don't have a citation right this second, but if you want one, I can do some searching. If anyone remembers a particular case of this happening, I would appreciate a citation.
- DanBC 11y agoCircumcision to prevent HIV infection is one example. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision_and_HIV https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circumcision_and_HIV This strongly anti-circumcision site has some more info, but the ranting gets a bit much: http://www.circumstitions.com/HIV-SA.html http://www.circumstitions.com/HIV-SA.html
- swehner 11y agoThe difference is that with cancer trials one is close to death already (as far as I understand)
- ceejayoz 11y agoWhy unethical? The control group isn't being harmed.