Should Pregnant Women Be Included In Clinical Trials?

Friday, September 26, 2008 - 01:35 in Health & Medicine

Why aren't pregnant women included in most clinical trials? Bioethicists at Duke University Medical Center, Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities writing in the International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics(*) say it's time to confront the challenges that have led to the exclusion of pregnant women from important research that could positively impact maternal and fetal health. "Only in the last two decades did people recognize that women were being excluded not just from the risks, but from the benefits of research -- primarily because of their potential to become pregnant or because of concerns that female physiology - such as menstrual cycles - might complicate study results," says Anne Drapkin Lyerly, MD, an obstetrician/gynecologist and medical ethicist at Duke. Read More...

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