Ethics in Emergency Research:A Special Issue on the Ethics of the Polyheme Artificial Blood Trial

In this month's issue of The American Journal of Bioethics, the AJOB target articles that started and sustained a lengthy debate about the trial of Polyheme, a blood substitute manufactured by Northfield Laboratories. The target articles, quoted in more than 1,400 print newspapers and in thousands of online articles, were also the subject of a special hearing held by Senator Grassley at which the FDA was asked to respond to the target articles.

Previously unreleased, however, are the Open Peer Commentaries about the Polyheme articles, which tell an even more in depth story about the arguments for and against this and comparable trials in emergency research, and ultimately point to the incredible importance of community consultation in emergency research, an area that is right at the center of our research at AMBI.

Also in this issue Matt Wynia's column about the market in vaccines, a special Target Article precis of Jon Baron's highly controversial new book Against Bioethics, with commentary from all sides.

Also tons of work is In Focus: Adil Shamoo and David Resnick on risks in phase one trials, Mandy Garber and Bob Arnold on promoting the participation of minorities in research, Jing-Bao Nie on the U.S. coverup of Japanese wartime medical atrocities, and Richard Matthews on the roles of physicians in torture.