Introduction
Randomized clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine implications during COVID-19 rarely comply with ethical regulations since they experience social pressure caused by high mortality rates and political contingencies. One such research conducted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) was terminated quickly due to ethical considerations. The reasons behind canceling this trial are connected to its violation of three core principles: respect, concern for welfare, and justice.
Analysis of Principle Violations
Respect
The major problem with this trial is the lack of respect for its participants, which violates their human dignity. The study was conducted with the participants of 500 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 and its subsequent damage to multiple organs (National Institutes of Health, 2020). The NHLBI neglected that all individuals in this research have moral status, which makes them eligible to receive efficient treatment quickly. Instead of providing them with effective drugs, researchers assigned them hydroxychloroquine, which brings no benefit but can even potentially harm patients.
Welfare Concern
The fact that NHLBI did not offer its patients safe treatment proves that the research team overlooks their welfare. If the team is concerned for the welfare of their patients, then it would eliminate future risks caused by hydroxyl chloride (Canadian Institutes of Health Research [CIHR] et al., 2022). Since NHLBI did not achieve the most appropriate balance of the research benefits and patient risks, the team violated the principle of concern for the welfare.
Justice
The last principle, justice, refers to the fair treatment of all participants. It also obliges researchers to guarantee the safety and power of their patients and avoid any harm or abuse (CIHR et al., 2022). Considering that inappropriate doses of hydroxychloroquine might cause side effects to the patient’s health, it violates justice. Moreover, when noting any drawbacks of the assigned treatment, NHLBI did not provide more safe doses, meaning they neglected this principle.
Conclusion
To conclude, researchers of NHBL did not respect participants’ autonomy, rejecting their right to choose the best treatment. Hence, the decision to terminate the NHLBI study is correct since it violated three core ethical principles of research: neglecting respect, justice, and concern for patients’ welfare. Ethically appropriate randomized trials require an adaptive approach that provides more effective drugs to patients and balances research benefits with patient risks.
References
Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. (2022). Chapter 11: Clinical trials. In Tri-Council Policy statement: Ethical conduct for research involving humans (pp. 194–227). Web.
National Institutes of Health. (2020). NIH halts the clinical trial of hydroxychloroquine. Web.
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