Art Caplan has a new column responding to the latest report from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Take a look:
A top-level commission has just released a new report on the morality of studying the safety of an anthrax vaccine in children, with an eye toward treating kids in the event of a terror attack.
The report, issued Tuesday by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, is quite thoughtful. It concludes that no testing should be considered unless the risk to kids is minimal. But it also represents a study of an experiment that has no chance of happening — ever. The commission has wasted its time. There is not a chance that a sufficient number of American parents are going to sign up their kids for the safety testing of an anthrax antidote.