> ******* UCL STATISTICS SEMINAR ****************
>
> Monday 2nd October 2000 - 4pm, Room 102, 1-19 Torrington Place,
> Department of Statistical Science - University College London.
>
> Speaker : Stephen Senn, Professor of Pharmaceutical and Health
> Statistics, UCL (University College London)
>
> Ethics, Placebos and Justice in Clinical Trials
>
> The current debate on whether the use of placebos in clinical trials is
> ethical is posited on a number of assumptions, all of which, in my view,
> are false. Amongst such false assumptions are
> 1. That use of placebo involves withholding effective treatment
> 2. That medicine is a two party system involving physician and patient
> only
> 3. That such ethical dilemmas as arise can be solved by considering the
> point of sickness only
> 4. That the relevant standard permitting randomisation of patients is
> equipoise
>
> I present an alternative view of ethics in clinical trials, which is
> based on a three party system involving physician, patient and Society,
> is pragmatic and utilitarian in philosophy and uses a Rawlsian
> perspective on justice. I conclude that the most important ethical issue
> attached to the use of placebos is consent and that clinical trials as
> currently carried out regularly fall short of the standard required.
>
> Reference
>
> S.J.Senn (1997) Are placebo run ins justified? British Medical Journal,
> 314, 1191-1193.
>
For details of other seminars, and for maps to help you find us, please see
our web site: www.ucl.ac.uk/stats/research/journals.html
> Dr Andrew Copas
> Lecturer in Medical Statistics
> Departments of Statistical Science & Sexually Transmitted Diseases
> University College London
> [log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask]
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