Author Description

Access to Experimental Drugs in Terminal Illness: Ethical Issues helps you understand the ethical dilemmas experienced by those suffering from terminal illnesses who are denied legal access to experimental, potentially life-saving drugs and who are then pressured into clinical tests designed to test and further the approval of those very same drugs. You'll get a better understanding of the urgent need for an ethical and legal re-evaluation of the current drug approval and drug testing process in most western countries. Access to Experimental Drugs in Terminal Illness assists you in gaining a better understanding of the changes to the drug testing and drug approval process political AIDS activism has achieved. In many ways, AIDS is a paradigmatic case for how people with terminal illnesses can make a difference to drug testing and drug approval. Specifically, you'll read about the importance of respecting the autonomy of terminally ill people who request to be given access to experimental drugs. The author gathers support for this view from a wide range of classical and contemporary moral philosophers. He also discusses the practical implications of his ethical analysis of the current regulations for drug approval and drug testing. Overall, you'll see that Access to Experimental Drugs in Terminal Illness is an innovative contribution to the current debate raging over the ethical justifiability of current clinical trials and their design. You'll find that your understanding of this debate will flourish and increase as you realize the need for improvement in the drug approval process worldwide.