When Do Drug Clinical Trials Cross The Line Of Ethical Behavior?

Clinical trials for new medications is a valuable tool to test the effects on humans. The most important thing in this matter is whether or not it is harmful to humans.

That being said, this comes at a cost. Do these trials cause more harm than is needed? Are they being properly supervised? Is the proper medical care available if something goes wrong?

How Drug Trials Work

Clinical trials are simply the act of giving someone a drug and seeing what the effects are. Does it do what it is intended for? What are the negative effects?

People are recruited and stay for either a few hours or days depending on what drug/study is being done. People are informed of the risks and have to sign a release form. This is not a contract and the person is free to leave the trial at any time.

The person is compensated financially for these trials. This can range from 100 dollars up to thousands of dollars. This makes it very attractive even though it comes with quite a risk.

Learn more about ethical standards in drug testing from the NIH’s guidelines on clinical research ethics.

The Ethical Concern: Who Gets Recruited?

The recruiting part of this process is the subject today.

Advertising clinical trials is generally acceptable. However, some drug companies have controversially recruited participants from homeless populations.

Vulnerability and Exploitation in Clinical Trials

Many homeless individuals struggle with addiction or mental health issues. Recruiting them for high-risk trials in exchange for short-term financial gain raises serious ethical concerns.

While clinical trials are essential for the development of new treatments, putting vulnerable populations at risk to meet research goals is problematic. Ethical awareness is part of our Medical Assistant Program training at Northwest Career College, where students learn how to support patient care responsibly and professionally.

Instead of offering temporary incentives, we should focus on programs that genuinely support long-term recovery and stability.