Ghida Al Kharfan
Mrs. Nina Shalhoub
English 204- Section ll
15 March 2016
A Critique/Synthesis of the following articles: “Salt in the wound: Will India rise up against the oppression of foreign clinical trials” by Glenn McGee and “Call to Check ‘Unethical’ Drug Trials in India” by Rahul Verma.
In his article “Salt in the wound: Will India rise up against the oppression of foreign clinical trials” written in April 2006, Glenn McGee, the director of the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College, argues that the abuse of the poor people in India by western pharmaceutical industries approaches a kind of “imperialism”. Moreover, Rahul Verma, in his article “Call to Check ‘Unethical’ Drug Trials in India” written in 9 February 2004,
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He claims that such trials are creating a business that aims at supporting pharmaceutical companies in other countries. Furthermore, the number of people willing to enroll in India exceeds the one in the United States where the cost of the trials is double that of India. McGee argues that the illiterate Indian population doesn’t distinguish between good and bad trials, and that only few hospitals are being able to conduct adequate clinical trials. Then he describes how crowds in the clinics are mainly created by poor Indian people, since one clinical trial’s cost reaches up to three months’ income. Finally, he brings up the government’s wills to check the safety of the trials before testing them on people and the failure of the whole process after one year because of the increased number of trials. McGee ends his article by wondering whether the Indian nation will ever be able to defeat the new imperialism or …show more content…
For instance, in the fifth paragraph of his article, he said (2006): “200 of the 14 000 general hospitals in India are capable of conducting clinical trials adequately”, and in his seventh paragraph he said: “435 women were given an anticancer drug to treat fertility, but did not know the drug was not cleared for this use”. By presenting such statistics and facts, McGee could strengthen his point of view and back up his arguments, making it easier for the readers to understand his position and be convinced of his thoughts towards clinical trials. He was argumentative, informative and persuasive at the same time, to explain first for the readers the truth behind the clinical trials and to encourage them not to enroll in such doings afterwards. However, McGee seemed a bit contradictory in his article. He talked about clinical trials being behind a new imperialism, a new oppressive authority. So, for a charge of imperialism to be appropriate in this case, he should have shown more evidences about pharmaceutical companies behaving oppressively, rather than focusing on the discounts that they are winning and on the ignorance of poor Indian people about the consequences of clinical trials. As a result, the author was successful in showing the negative aspects of the clinical trials and in warning people about an
Third world countries and underdeveloped nations have become the new proverbial Petri dish of experimentation and offer particular conditions which researchers would never be able to find in their home countries. This only serves to highlight the problem that inherently faces all research studies, the ethical debate in regards to the protection and rights of their subjects. Is it feasible to expect the same standards to apply in certain countries where an economical imbalance between what is possible and what is not can be the largest hurdle to overcome? These are key issues examined in the New England Journal of Medicine by author Marcia Angell, M.D., and co-authors Harold Varmus, M.D. and David Satcher, M.D. in their respective articles that consider the ethical standards that should prevail in such circumstances. Should researchers be upheld to universal standards, or are the standards more applicable in a “local” sense, where the conditions and the constraints of the location provide the context for how the principles should be applied?
War is serious! In the short story “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, he recounts his personal experience with war and personal issues, not just any war but the Vietnam War. This was highly disregarded war by most Americans. Lives would be forever changed from their experiences of battles, guilt, wounds, heart brokes, emotions, and even death. The main character of the story is Tim O’Brien, who is also the narrator and protagonist. These collections of stories are a glimpse of his personal encounters. Another dynamic character was Lieutenant Jimmy Cross, commanding officer of the platoon. Other characters include Alpha Company soldiers Ted Lavender, Kiowa, and other soldiers. . The mission for O’Brien, his fellow battle buddies, and commanding officers is not easy and is filled with personal inner battles and conflicts. Some tried coping with things they carried from home and necessity items such as photos, military equipment and rifles, and miscellaneous foods among other things that would prove to be a turning point in t...
Many believe the Dust Bowl was caused solely by bad weather, but Egan shows a multitude of factors that led to the catastrophe. In Timothy Egan’s book, The Worst Hard Time, Egan believes that the syndicate and government, overproduction of the land, and drought were all factors that caused the Dust Bowl.
In the United States, the basis for ethical protection for human research subjects in clinical research trials are outlined by the Belmont Report developed in the late 1970’s. This document, published by the Nation Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, highlights three important basic principles that are to be considered when any clinical trial will involve human research subjects. They are; respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. (Chadwick & Gunn, 2004)
Since the inception of this mode of research, peoples’ perception of what constitutes moral behavior towards patients and specifically harvesting cells from patients has changed. Over time, other doctors would take cells from patients without patient consent and use them for research. Coming from this, people began to think about how ethical this was, and especially if the potential for scientific or medical advances outweighs the injustices imposed by the lack of obtaining patient consent. One could argue that in the area of ethical behavior and medical advances, it might be necessary and acceptable to take cells or tissue samples without patient consent. And even though these cells and the research of these cells might not affect the patient, what advantages and disadvantages could come from obtaining or not obtaining patient consent?
Myers, J., Frieden, T., Bherwani, K., & Henning, K. (2008). Ethics in public health research. American Journal of Public Health, 98(5), 793-801.
Phatak, A. (1998 йил 01-01). The pharmaceutical industry and the medical profession. Retrieved 2012 йил 19-01 from Indian Journal of Medical Ethics: http://www.ijme.in/064cr131.html
K. Anand, N. B., D. Moorthy, S. K. Kapoor, R. Sankar, C. S. Pandav. (2002). Ethical Issues in Public Health Policy. The National Medical Journal of India, 15(2), 97-100.
When a person seeks medical attention they go with the hope that their personal rights will not be violated with the belief that doctors will uphold their personal standards. Unfortunately, this is not always so for people who visit the hospital. There are documented cases in United States history involving African Americans being experimented on for the greater good without their knowledge or consent, and some of the most heinous cases involve doctors injecting their study groups with life threatening diseases. What happens when good science goes bad and who has the right to relegate the status of another human being as less than? In this research paper we will examine a clinical testing case study featuring the violation and exploitation
Steinbock, Bonnie, Alex J. London, and John D. Arras. "’Rights- Based’ Approaches." Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine. Contemporary Readings in Bioethics. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. 23. Print.
The first article is entitled “of mice but not men: problems of randomized clinical trials,” is written by Samuel Hellman and Deborah S. Hellman discusses the issues of randomized medical testing and experiments on patients. The article describes the role of the personal physician and how the physician can take an ethical or unethical path of treating his/her patients. The relationship between the patient and physician is greatly emphasized because according to the article trust is very valuable in medicine especially when a patient’s life is at risk. A Kantian and a Utilitarian view of randomized clinical trials are debated but the authors clearly steers towards a Kantian point of view.
Miller, F. (2003). Therapeutic Misconception in the Ethics of Clinical Trials,. The Hastings Center Report.
...obert J.. Ethics and regulation of clinical research. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1986. Print.
Outsourcing clinical trials raises many issues related to data integrity and quality control of clinical trials. Regulatory oversight, language barriers, the meaning of informed consent among a much poorer population, the quality of clinical care, and the ethical problem of raising a population's expectations for drugs that most of that population cannot afford are consequences of outsourcing clinical research. Most importantly, it raises the question of whether the results of clinical trials using one population can be applied elsewhere. Then this leads to the main question on whether clinical trials should be outsourced since the consequences pose harmful effects to doctors and patients. Doctors are heavily relied on for the best prescription and or advisement to their patients’ needs and it is very challenging to make the necessary decisions without having all of the evidence to support the decision making process. Researchers have explained and proposed solutions to data integrity and quality control of clinical trials. For instance, Arun Bhatt, the author of “Quality of clinical trials: A moving target”, believes that systemically approaching the entire process of clinical trials would help solve the issue of data integrity.
Nelson, J.B. (1973). Human Medicine: ethical perspectives on new medical issues. Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House.