Week 3 A Right to Experimental Drugs FALL 2023

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Colorado Mesa University *

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3200

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Philosophy

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Apr 3, 2024

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1 A Right to Experiment Drugs? : Week 3 Molly Tonello Capella University PHI3200- Ethics in Health Care Dr. Kim Carter-Cram October 29, 2023
2 Utilitarianism, as it relates to healthcare, can be seen as an ethical theory that focuses on the consequences of actions without regard for their intentions. In other words, it serves to act or produce the greatest good for the most significant number of people, regardless of moral belief or ethical situation. Kantian theory can be seen as the absolute rule, with no exceptions.  As it relates to healthcare, specifically having the right to have access to what would have otherwise been inaccessible or the right to try, it is a very personal and situational dilemma. Kantian theory would object to the Right-to-Try theory as it is situational and depends on a case- by-case basis. Whereas Utilitarianism, specifically Rule Utilitarianism, would consider that while there are still rules that should be followed, those rules and exceptions or scenarios may coexist or be situational. The situation can still have rules and strive to serve the most significant number of people while doing good. In this case, the good would be both finding a treatment that could prove to give more time as well as contributing to furthering the experimental treatment and providing treatment options for many more people.  Informed consent is the ethical foundation for medical care and the legal backbone to ensuring a patient has adequately been informed of the risks, benefits, and possible outcomes of the treatment, procedure, or situation. Informed consent has the “intent that human participants can enter research freely (voluntarily) with full information about what it means for them to take part, and that they give consent before they enter the research.” (University of Oxford, 2021) Even with the Right to Try Act, “physician is responsible for getting written informed consent from the eligible patient or their legally authorized representative.” (Office of the Commissioner, 2023)
3 The cost of offering unapproved experimental drugs to patients is noted to be many, like: “ Lack of FDA involvement could reduce safety…, “narrowing trial population due to investigation trials compared to clinical trials,” “without approval, products may do more harm than good,” “might divert resources from going to clinical trials, resulting in a delay of FDA approval,” “costs and burden” ((Edlin, 2020) Included is the false hope of a cure, time, or relief or the emotional turmoil a family or the person is going through. They may be put through worse pain or symptoms or even complications due to the experimental drugs and be worse off than they would have been without experimenting. However, they could find peace and comfort, and ideally, they would find a treatment that made them feel better, heal, or more comfortable. A person in the experiment may be a part of a breakthrough, furthering education and being a part of the solution that could not only treat themselves but be the reason there are more treatment options for others. A concern is where does it stop? Where is the line drawn, and where do the rules, like those in the Katian theory, live? Can the same logic be used for situations for lifetime incarcerated individuals or those facing the death penalty- can they contribute to medical experiments in the name of science but alternatively escape their sentence? This is not a new thought or foreign idea. In the 1950s through the 1970s, there was medical research and experiments done in the United States at the Holmesberg Prison in Philadelphia. The consensus was that the “American model establishment betrayed the ideals of the Hippocratic Oath and the
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