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Law, Ethics Not the Same
Ethics Rounds Examines Illegal Behavior,
Confidentiality |
| By Carla Garnett |
Say you're a nurse or doctor at the Clinical
Center. In the course of a research study, you discover a patient
breaking the law. What do you do? If your decision seems simple,
it's likely you're missing important ethical — not to mention,
legal — considerations and consequences. An Ethics Grand
Rounds discussion, "Research Subjects Engaged in Illegal Behavior:
How Should Clinicians Respond?" tackled the topic on Feb. 1 in
Lipsett Amphitheater.
If the notion of a patient involved in an illegal act in the hospital
seems farfetched, consider this true story (to protect confidentiality,
some facts have been changed): A 35-year-old woman volunteers to
take part in an NIMH clinical trial. Sally has a 21-year history
with a major mental illness. To be eligible for the study — an
inpatient, phase-II drug trial — volunteers could not be
active substance abusers. Potential participants who had a substance
abuse history longer than 5 years were excluded from the study.
A customary toxicology screening for illegal substances, done during
admission, cleared Sally to take part.
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Spotlight on Microbicide Research
First National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness
Day |
| By Belle Waring |
HIV testing is usually a confidential process.
Yet Staci, a vigorous 22-year-old mother of two, has consented
to being filmed while she receives her results.
When the mobile clinic first came round her neighborhood — well,
why not get the test? "If I have something," she says sturdily, "I
would like to know, keep myself healthy." The most important thing
in her life, she says, is her kids.
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