Therapeutic Research Protocol: Should Patient Pay?

Abstract

A physician responds to a question about whether patients participating in clinical trials should be required to pay for the drugs and physician services involved. He answers that patients should generally be expected to pay if they are taking part in therapeutic research on drugs that have already been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Although physicians have a moral responsibility to needy patients, there is a positive virtue in retaining paying patients among those who consent to participate in clinical research. (KIE abstract)