Things people say/think

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I'm talking to my Mom last week and she's telling me this story about a co-worker of hers who evidently has melanoma. He is, she says, being treated on a clinical trial. (As most people with cancer are, at least in this area.) And that's when this story turns ridiculous. She continues "but he knows he's getting the real medicine because he feels sick."

Stop talking right now, please, Mom. A. No. B. Do you seriously think that a "clinical trial" for a highly malignant cancer means a double blind placebo trial in which only one group gets treatment? Seriously? This was apparently the gossip around her workplace. These people (educated people) apparently think that it's totally ethical to completely withhold treatment from half of melanoma patients as they all thought their version of this story was rational and made complete sense.

And then my head nearly exploded from this 10 minute conversation.

[SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN]

Shades of Tuskegee, just when you think you've heard it all...

[workingharder]

Tuskegee...

Is that where I'd heard this before...

[SoldierNurse22, BSN, RN]

Probably. That was the study where medical professionals allowed syphilis to advance unhindered under the pretense of "treating" the infected men. This was done to study the long-term consequences of syphilis in humans. A lesson in how not to do medical ethics.