A bioethicist says scientists owe clinical trial volunteers support
Some people see clinical trials as a chance for a miracle cure. In reality, these experimental drug tests and medical interventions often fail. With researchers in the United States now testing the gene editor CRISPR/Cas9 for the first time in people with cancer, blood disorders or inherited blindness (SN: 8/14/19), one bioethicist says it’s important to remind scientists running these trials and others about the responsibilities researchers bear for study volunteers. That’s not to say that scientists doing clinical trials are doing anything wrong or that such studies should stop, says Laurie Zoloth of the University of Chicago. Her role as a bioethicist, she explains, is “to make sure that human progress goes forward in a way that’s safe and ethical.” Clinical trials in people — whether testing new drugs, devices, surgical methods or CRISPR technology — must meet higher ethical standards than work conducted in a lab, she says. “Having a human being as a subject means you have different obligations than you would to...