Dear editor:
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Human medical research relies heavily upon the good intentions and honesty of volunteers, who put themselves at some risk in return for monetary compensation and the knowledge that they have made a contribution to medicine. However, misrepresentation by a volunteer of his or her medical, drug, psychological, or behavioral history in order to be accepted into a study amounts to scientific fraud and undermines the whole process. If it isn’t already illegal, it ought to be. (Perhaps this is why Mr. L. lacks a full last name.)
By misrepresenting his current drug use, Mr. L. also increased the chances of his having an adverse reaction to the drugs administered. Fortunately for both Mr. L. and the researchers, despite his misrepresentation he was not assigned to the wrong study group in this case. But in a different situation, such a lie could have led to serious medical consequences. Incidentally, lying to get into a research study often is self-defeating anyway; volunteers usually do not know what the recruiter really wants to hear (i.e. the actual acceptance criteria are frequently concealed from volunteers in order to minimize the chance of misrepresentation).
