assignment # 5

What is a placebo drug? Do you think giving a placebo drug is ethical or not? Explain your answer.

A placebo drug is an inactive substance used in clinical trials as a control, with which comparisons can be made to the real drug. It is used to determine if any effects are real or psychological.

Before anything else, we must acknowledge the fact that most, if not all placebo drugs are used only as control in comparison to experimental drugs, and, as the definition states, to determine psychological effects of drugs. In line with this thought, patients who are given placebo drugs are not usually informed of the nature of this substance, that they are in fact, just placebo. This is the reason why the ethical principle of the matter is questioned. Another thing, most of the patients that undergo these studies are those with terminal conditions, or those conditions with little or no known and effective cure as of yet, hence the experimental studies of the drugs, which make it all the more ethically questionable. For me, using placebo drugs are ethical in the sense that it is essential in the progress of scientific knowledge in pharmacology. In fact, it would be so difficult to determine the effectiveness of experimental drugs if there are no placebo to compare with. I understand that patients with terminal illness are desperate enough to try experimental drugs, even without assurance of cure. However, if they found out that the drug given to them was actually just placebo, this would quite understandably incur their wrath. But I think, if explained to them properly after the research, I'm sure they would see the logic of the study, and the importance of their participation. In the issue that they are in desperate need of the cure but they are not given the drug but only the control, well, I'm sure there's nothing that a very good explanation cannot resolve. That is why obtaining an informed consent at the very beginning of the study is extremely important, that the patients enrolling in the study know that there is in fact a placebo group in the research. So in the end, they cannot really accuse the research group of falsity and immorality for not giving the experimental drug. And afterall, the drug in question is experimental therefore, there really is no assurance that it will work. However, if it does work, then everybody can benefit from the results of the study.