ultimately improve human health and develop understanding of human biology. Human subjects who participate in clinical research make it possible to secure that knowledge. In order to determine if a new drug or treatment is safe or effective, for example, it has to be tested on patient volunteers. By placing some people at risk of harm for the good of others, clinical research has the potential of exploiting patient volunteers. The purpose of ethical guidelines is thus to protect patient volunteers
Moral Musings with Dr Melanie Baker By Emily Wu A uckland based doctor Melanie Baker explains how medical ethics, despite not frequently involving dramatic life or death decisions, is a day to day challenge facing general medical practitioners in New Zealand. Alongside questions of “is it an allergy or eczema?” GPs face a constant stream of dilemmas that necessarily require moral judgements. Dr Baker and her husband (who is also a GP) co-own a GP clinic in central Auckland, New Zealand’s largest