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Thanks for posting the article's existence. I found it on the web at : http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/surg28.html This is sure "hot news" I believe all the subjects except perhaps 1 or 2 have been completed. I was #2 almost 3 years ago. ...But medical ethicist Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania Health System believes placebo surgery is unethical. ``You're violating the principle of do not harm the subject.''... ...But Caplan said patients with advanced Parkinson's disease ``are so desperate they will sign up for anything.''... Caplan is dead wrong on this. All subjects are told that the placebo surgery is possibly going to occur and understand the risk. We also understand the risk of our PD progressing and weigh the benefits and risks both to us and to others. The fact that PD patients are so desperate is precisely the reason the double-blind studies need to be done. People are willing to do almost anything and will try something which has so much promise as fetal cell transplant. They also will try many other things that are not proven some with little chance of being proven safe and effective. After my surgery I started with improvement for a year and then went downhill. If I was in a placebo group I took the risk knowing that might be the case and I still have access to the surgery at a later time if it works on others. If I was in a transplant group however then if my result may contribute to evidence that fetal transplant- at least performed as it was on me is not useful. That may save hundreds of people from having the surgery needlessly- a surgery with not an insignificant morbidity and mortality- and having brief improvement followed by deterioration. If however it is proven to work, then it can possibly be put into general use (and paid for by insurance!) or in this case provide the information necessary to take another step to a cure- like the proposed pig cell double blind study or the use of stem cells. The potential benefit to me and scientific research far outweighs the risks. Countering Dr. Caplan "... Placebo surgery is troublesome because it is invasive, said University of Chicago medical ethicist Ann Dudley Goldblatt. On the other hand, Goldblatt said, placebo surgery could make studies more reliable. Moreover, patients should have the right to participate, provided they understand the risks." ``It is, at bottom, an ethical experiment,'' Goldblatt said. Charlie "nancy s. shlaes" wrote: > Yesterday (1/28) there was an article with the headline "Fake Surgeries stir Debate" which begins > "In a study that has stirred debate among medical ethicists, doctors are recruiting Chicago area > Parkinson patients for a clinical trial inolving fake surgeries. The trial will include 18 PD > patients from Rush-Pres-St.Luke's Med Ctr in Chi and 18 from Mt. Sinai Med Ctr in NY. Patients > will undeergo surgery at a Florida hospital. Two-thirds of the patients will receive injections > of fetal brain tissues through two tiny holes drilled in the skull. The remaining patients will > get placebo surgery.....The study is one of at least 3 trials of PD patients involving placebo > surgeries." > > This is followed by a brief pro and con discussion among ethicists. In general, it is is positive > article under a negative headline. -- ****************************************************************************************** Charles T. Meyer, M.D. Middleton (Madison), Wisconsin [log in to unmask] ******************************************************************************************