“Ready-to-Recruit” or “Ready-to-Consent” Populations? Informed Consent and the Limits of Subject Autonomy

This article queries the pharmaceutical industry's concept of “ready-torecruit” populations by examining its recruitment strategies for clinical trials and the types of human subjects who participate in these drug studies. The argument is that the pharmaceutical industry has profited from a sys...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Qualitative inquiry Vol. 13; no. 6; pp. 875 - 894
Main Author: Fisher, Jill A.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.09.2007
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:
Alternative approaches
Autonomy
Clinical research
Clinical trial
Clinical trials
Consensus
Drug industry
Drugs
Ethical standards
Ethics
Human subjects
Informed consent
Meaning
Medical ethics
Medical Research
Medicine
Motivation
Participants
Participation
Pharmaceutical industry
Pharmaceuticals
Pharmacy
Population
Populations
Qualitative analysis
Qualitative research
Recruitment
Regulation
Research Ethics
Research subjects
Researcher Subject Relations
U.S.A
Vulnerability
Vulnerable people
pharmaceutical industry
human subjects
clinical trials
informed consent
recruitment
ISSN:1077-8004, 1552-7565
Online Access:Get full text
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Description
Summary:This article queries the pharmaceutical industry's concept of “ready-torecruit” populations by examining its recruitment strategies for clinical trials and the types of human subjects who participate in these drug studies. The argument is that the pharmaceutical industry has profited from a system composed of what can more aptly be characterized as ready-to-consent populations, meaning populations who do not have better alternatives than participation in clinical trials. Furthermore, through qualitative research, this article aims to highlight some of the limitations of current U.S. federal regulation and to show how these limits signal problems that are not normally discussed in the medical ethics literature about research on human subjects. It does this by examining the impotence of informed consent—both as a concept and as a practice—in light of recruitment strategies and the structural reasons motivating individuals to participate in clinical trials.
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ISSN:1077-8004
1552-7565
DOI:10.1177/1077800407304460