Briefly summarise the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. A “placebo effect” occurs when a patient who thinks he or she is being treated for an illness improves in health even though no actual treatment has occurred. In order to determine if a treatment is effective, it is necessary for researchers to rule out health improvements due to the placebo effect. The process of ruling out the placebo effect requires a certain degree of deception on part of the researchers – if the researchers inform the patients they are not receiving the actual treatment, but instead receiving a placebo, then the researchers will not be able to rule out the placebo effect. We believe that research subjects should be provided with informed consent, but also recognise that there are situations where this is not possible. Where do we draw the line? Who should determine where the line is drawn? Explain your answer.
