Case Two: Experimental Blood Substitute on First Response Vehicles

Extract

Clinical trials in a number of countries are now underway to evaluate experimental, non-human blood substitute.¹ One scenario calls for the blood substitute to be available on board emergency vehicles. This allows first responders the opportunity to provide transfusion support at an accident site and on the way to the hospital. However, many of the patients who would most benefit from the use of this material may be unconscious and unable to comprehend or sign an informed consent. One possible solution would be to eliminate the need for informed consent.

History testifies to the need for protecting human beings who serve as subjects of experimentation.¹ Requiring voluntary informed consent is intended to protect the life, health, dignity, and autonomy of subjects. However, in the case of first responders, waiving informed consent is justified in some cases. Understandably, the mere thought of waiving the informed consent requirement causes the entire world to shudder. The prospect reminds us of the inhumane Nazi and Tuskegee experiments.

The Nazis performed heinous experiments that included freezing and thawing humans, testing various poisons and methods of sterilization, injecting humans with typhus and malaria, testing bone, nerve and muscle regeneration, and bone transplantation. There were seemingly fetishist experiments conducted under the supervision of researchers such as Josef Mengele.² These experiments were justified by the “important information” they produced for furthering the German war effort, purifying the German race, and affirming German superiority. When the world learned of the horrors of these experiments, there was a collective determination…