Dresser is the first to examine patient advocacy through the lens of research ethics.
She exposes the bright and dark sides of patients' expanded opportunities to enroll in clinical trials and join researchers in planning and evaluating studies. She considers the virtues and drawbacks of giving patients more influence over how the government invests its research dollars. She argues that advocates should do more to promote ethical human studies and responsible media reporting about research. Patient advocates can help make research more ethical, but advocacy raises ethical issues of its own. This book clearly and vividly recounts the advocacy contribution to research and explores the thorny ethical issues facing research advocates.