Should healthy volunteers in clinical trials be paid according to risk? Yes

doi:10.1136/bmj.b4142

Published 22 October 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b4142
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b4142

Head to Head

Should healthy volunteers in clinical trials be paid according to risk? Yes

Eleri Jones, barrister¹, Kathleen Liddell, lecturer²

¹ Middle Temple, London, EC4Y 9AT , ² Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 9DZ

Correspondence to: E Jones eleri.jones@cantab.net

Eleri Jones and Kathleen Liddell argue that objections to payingaccording to risk are paternalistic, but John Saunders (doi:10.1136/bmj.b4145)thinks that it would lead to people being exposed to unacceptabledanger

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

The severe reactions experienced by healthy volunteers in theTGN1412 (Northwick Park) trial have led to questions about paymentfor participation.¹ Currently, the dominant view is that onlytime and expenses should be remunerated. By this logic a healthyvolunteer participating in a half day trial at risk of immunologicalstorm is paid the same as a volunteer participating in a halfday observational study. This is objectionable for two reasons:firstly, because there should be recognition of a volunteer’sgift to society² for the higher risks in some trials and, secondly,because it is inconsistent with other practices in society.

The law allows volunteers to be paid subject to approval bya research ethics committee.³ In addition, the volunteer mustgive free and informed consent, yet there has been little judicialguidance on the influences, such as money, that render a competentperson’s decision involuntary. In medical treatment cases,. . . [Full text of this article]

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