Title: What price better health? : hazards of the research imperative /
Authors: Callahan, Daniel, 1930-2019; Milbank Memorial Fund.
Publisher: University of California Press ; Milbank Memorial Fund,
Year: 2003
Subjects: Morals; Ethics, Research; Research; Medicine Research Social aspects United States.; Research United States.; Ethics, Research United States.; Morals United States.; United States
Abstract: Medical research, with its power to attract money and political support, and its promise of cures for a wide range of medical burdens, has good and bad sides--which are often indistinguishable. In this book, the author teases out the distinctions and differences, revealing the difficulties that result when the research imperative is suffused with excessive zeal, adulterated by the profit motive, or used to justify cutting moral corners. Exploring the National Institutes of Health's annual budget, the inflated estimates of health care cost savings that result from research, the high prices charged by drug companies, the use and misuse of human subjects for medical testing, and the controversies surrounding human cloning and stem cell research, he clarifies the fine line between doing good and doing harm in the name of medical progress. His work shows that medical research must be understood in light of other social and economic needs and how even the research imperative, dedic.
Contents: The emergence and growth of the research imperative -- Protecting the integrity of science -- Is research a moral obligation? -- Curing the sick, helping the suffering, enhancing the well -- Assessing risks and benefits -- Using humans for research -- Pluralism, balance, and controversy -- Doing good and doing well -- Advocacy and priorities for research -- Research and the public interest.