manrasingh
Hi experts
GMATNinja AjiteshArun KarishmaBFor
(D) An experimental drug cannot legally be made available to patients unless those patients are subjects in clinical trials of the drug.
why is this line of reasoning wrong?
I understand that we need to weaken that "practicing physicians are morally in the wrong when, in the absence of any treatment proven to be effective, they fail to encourage suitable patients to volunteer for clinical trials."
I thought that if these drugs are being tested out currently for future generations and together with the information provided in D, it means that the future generations themselves will have to be in the control group for the drug being tested which sounds illogical. I thought this took away the blame from the practicing physicians as they could not do anything in this case.
Hi manrasingh,
Let's look at it this way: we have (currently) experimental treatments. Some of these treatments may prove to
not be safe and effective, but other experimental treatments may turn out to be safe and effective, at which point they would stop being experimental. At that point (in the future) the safe and effective treatments would benefit the lives and health of future generations. Keep in mind that all of this depends on testing the currently experimental treatments.
The author tells us that ~doctors should therefore encourage some of their patients (the ones who ~don't have any options left) to volunteer for clinical trials for these experimental treatments.
Now, let's take a look at option D: "An experimental drug
cannot legally be made available to patients unless those patients are subjects in clinical trials of the drug."
If clinical trials are the
only legal way to achieve what the author wants, then
it becomes even more important for doctors to encourage their patients to sign up for these clinical trials.