RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 “Fair’s fair argument” and voluntarism in clinical research: But, is it fair?
JF Journal of Medical Ethics
JO J Med Ethics
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd and Institute of Medical Ethics
SP 478
OP 482
DO 10.1136/jme.2005.013763
VO 32
IS 8
A1 M A Perna
YR 2006
UL http://jme.bmj.com/content/32/8/478.abstract
AB This article sets out to counteract HM Evans’s “fair’s fair argument” in support of abolishing veto to research participation. Evans’s argument attempts to assimilate ordinary clinical practice to clinical research. I shall refer to this attempt as “assimilation claim”. I shall attempt to show that this assimilation, as it is carried out in Evans’s argument, is misleading and, ultimately, logically undermines the conclusion. I shall then proceed to show that when the fair’s fair argument is proposed independently of the assimilation claim, Evans’s conclusion is not unavoidable and possible alternatives are equally open within the terms of the argument itself.