Guidelines for accepting volunteers: consent, ethical implications and the function of a peer review

Ethical issues in the testing of new drugs in man

The following analysis of ethical issues in the testing of new drugs is located in a broader discussion of ethical issues in medical experimentation with human subjects generally. Major ethical principles which have emerged from the recent debate concerning biomedical and behavioral research are examined, special attention being given to the meaning and theological/philosophical basis of the consent requirement. Two models of medical ethics are examined, one beginning with the primacy of the “benefits to society” and the other with the primacy of the subject as person. The development and testing of a vaccine for the prevention of viral hepatitis type B is considered as a test case in the development and testing of a new drug.

Personality characteristics of volunteers for medical research

Thirty-seven inmates who had previously volunteered for phase I drug testing and 33 who had not were interviewed by a psychologist to obtain demographic and motivational data. Each inmate completed a standard psychopathology inventory (the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), the Similarities and Picture Arrangement subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, a test of normal personality variables (the Edwards Personality Scale), and Christie's Machiavellianism Scale. The data supported the conclusions that (1) inmates are in general free enough from psychopathology to be able to make rational choices about participating in medical research as long as preliminary screening for individuals with severely disordered thinking is carried out, (2) verbal communication skills of inmates appear to be well enough developed to allow them to give an informed consent, (3) while there are personality differences between volunteers and nonvolunteers, these appear to relate most directly to the fact that, without screening, impulsive, manipulative individuals with disordered thought processes are over-represented among volunteers for medical research.

Moral dilemmas in clinical cancer experimentation

An examination of certain moral tensions that have developed in clinical cancer experimentation is offered. It is argued that the individual partner must be addressed in his singular unique position, rather than as a potential for the future good.