Gene Transfer and the Ethics of First-in-Human Research
Lost in Translation

Examines the ethical and policy dimensions of testing novel medical interventions in human beings for the first time.

Jonathan Kimmelman (Author)

9780521690843, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 October 2009

218 pages, 10 b/w illus. 4 tables
23.3 x 15.6 x 1.1 cm, 0.38 kg

Human gene transfer is widely regarded as one of the most promising technologies for the treatment of a variety of disorders, but it presents practitioners with a variety of difficult ethical questions. Gene Transfer and the Ethics of First-in-Human Research examines the ethical and policy dimensions of testing interventions in human beings for the first time. The book discusses the difficult ethical challenges that arise from attempting to translate laboratory discoveries into clinical applications. These range from which available techniques to use, when to initiate human testing, questions of consent, expectation in public arenas, how to define acceptable risk, and the inclusion of vulnerable or disadvantaged subjects in early phase trials. This book is relevant to ethicists, legal practitioners, policy makers, geneticists and clinicians involved in clinical trials of new medical interventions.

Abbreviations
1. Gene transfer lost in translation: an introduction
2. What is gene transfer?
3. Safety, values, and legitimacy: the protean nature of risk in translational trials
4. Taming uncertainty: risk and gene transfer clinical research
5. Succor or suckers? Evaluating the benefits of trial participation
6. Looking backward: a model of value for translational trials
7. Over the chasm: the initiation of first-in-human trials
8. Tropic of cancers: gene transfer in resource-poor settings
9. Great expectations and hard times: managing expectations in gene transfer
10. Something in the sight adjusts itself: conclusion
Note to readers
Index.

Subject Areas: Medical genetics [MFN], Medicolegal issues [MBQ]