[Historically] the public has remained suspicious of much experimental research which, as a result, was often done on prisoners, orphans, the mentally challenged, and other captive populations without informed consent. But with the emergence of AIDS in the early 1980s, everything changed. Highly organised groups of gay men, confronted with a mysterious life-threatening disease, aggressively advocated for greater research funding and for early inclusion in experimental trials. Their arguments were persuasive enough for the US Food and Drug Administration to revise its protocols, expediting the drug approval process. [A number of moral concerns are raised by this shift in policy] and although groups such as Abigail's Alliance have urged US courts to find a constitutional right for terminally ill patients to get access to unapproved experimental therapies, recent rulings have gone in the other direction.
Thousands of patients are suing AstraZeneca in US courts, claiming the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel caused weight gain and diabetes. The patients allege Seroquel, its second biggest selling drug worth $4.5bn (£2.7bn) a year, was marketed without adequate warning about possible side effects such as massive weight gain and the development of diabetes. However, this is denied by the company.
At least 83 Guatemalans are thought to have died after being deliberately infected with syphilis and gonorrhoea in the 1940s, a presidential commission in the United States has heard. US government scientists infected hundreds of Guatemalan prisoners, psychiatric patients and orphans to study the effects of penicillin. None of those infected consented. The head of the commission, Amy Gutmann, called the research a "shameful piece of medical history". The Presidential Commission for the study of Bioethical Issues is due to publish its report in September. President Obama set up the commission when the research came to light last year.