Balancing Act: Breaking Stalemates in Clinical Research

Peter Ubell, MD
The American Journal of Bioethics
February 2011

Recent debates over prominent research studies illustrate that controversy can be easily created rather than dispelled by clinical trials, with many clinicians choosing not to use the proven therapy until they receive more convincing evidence of its superiority.

In such situations, we propose that a new standard of equipoise be used to guide decisions about the ethical justifications for research trials—a standard of behavioral equipoise. Under behavioral equipoise, a trial is potentially justifiable if it addresses behavioral resistance to prior scientific evidence.

Podcast: Ethical Stalemates in Clinical Research, Peter Ubell, MD, The Bioethics Channel