"Paid to Endure": Paid Research Participation, Passivity, and the Goods of Work

A growing literature documents the existence of individuals who make a living by participating in phase I clinical trials for money. Several scholars have noted that the concerns about risks, consent, and exploitation raised by this phenomenon apply to many (other) jobs, too, and therefore proposed...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:American journal of bioethics Vol. 19; no. 9; pp. 11 - 20
Main Author: Malmqvist, Erik
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Taylor & Francis 01.09.2019
Subjects:
Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic - economics
Clinical Trials, Phase I as Topic - ethics
Employment
Ethics
Ethics, Research
Etik
Filosofi
Human subjects research
Humans
IRB (institutional review board)
Medical Ethics
Medicinsk etik
pharmaceutical industry
Philosophy
regulatory issues
Remuneration
research ethics
Research Subjects
Salaries and Fringe Benefits
Social Justice
United States
Work
United States
pharmaceutical industry
Human subjects research
philosophy
research ethics
IRB (institutional review board)
regulatory issues
ISSN:1526-5161, 1536-0075, 1536-0075
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A growing literature documents the existence of individuals who make a living by participating in phase I clinical trials for money. Several scholars have noted that the concerns about risks, consent, and exploitation raised by this phenomenon apply to many (other) jobs, too, and therefore proposed improving subject protections by regulating phase I trial participation as work. This article contributes to the debate over this proposal by exploring a largely neglected worry. Unlike most (other) workers, subjects are not paid to produce or achieve anything but to have things done to them. I argue that this passivity is problematic for reasons of distributive justice. Specifically, it fails to enable subjects to realize what Gheaus and Herzog call "the goods of work"-a failure not offset by adequate opportunities to realize these goods outside of the research context. I also consider whether granting subjects worker-type protections would accommodate this concern.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:1526-5161
1536-0075
1536-0075
DOI:10.1080/15265161.2019.1630498