Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics

Table of Contents - 1996 - Volume 5, Issue 03  

Special Section: Rejuvenating Research Ethics

Patient Access to Experimental Drugs and AIDS Clinical Trial Designs: Ethical Issues

Udo Schüklenka1 and Carlton Hogana2

a1 Monash University Centre for Human Bioethics, Australia. is a German philosopher. He has published widely on philosophical aspects of AIDS, environmental issues of animal rights, and ethics of sexual orientation research.

a2 He is Editor-in-Chief of PWALive magazine and works at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Division of Biostatlstics. He publishes on AIDS-related issues in advocate newsletters, magazines, and scientific journals.

Today's clinical AIDS research is in trouble. Principal investigators are confronted with young and frequently highly knowledgeable patients. Many of these people with AIDS (PWAs) are often unwilling to adhere to the trial protocols. These PWAs believe they are ethically justified in breaching trial protocols because they do not consider themselves true volunteers in such trials. PWAs argue that they do not really volunteer because existing legislation prevents them from buying and using experimental drugs or from testing alternative treatment strategies. Their only access to such agents is participation in clinical trials.

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