Medical Research Studies Can Be Very Harmful
The Baltimore Sun recently published a very informative article on the risks and oversight of medical testing on human subjects. By Meredith Cohn and Jean Marbella, The Baltimore Sun.
“When University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers were looking for volunteers to test a vaccine for Ebola, which was killing thousands of people in West Africa, Andrea Buchwald raised her hand in Baltimore.
‘Scientific curiosity,’ the 29-year-old graduate research assistant in Maryland’s department of epidemiology said, explaining why — along with her trust in the system governing treatment of human subjects — she was willing to be experimented on.
‘Consent for clinical trials is a very stringent process,’ Buchwald added. ‘You’re expected to do your best to ensure your participants are fully informed and doing this of their own volition. Things have changed a lot since the 1940s.’