August 10, 2001

Researchers Shouldn't Raise or Destroy Patients' Hopes

To the Editor:

The essay by Rebecca Dresser is generally balanced in its approach to what some medical ethicists refer to as therapeutic misconception, but it skirts dangerously close to a recommendation that the only truly informed consent for a patient with no therapeutic option entering a clinical trial involves the eradication of optimism and hope ("Naive Expectations Endanger Biomedical Research," The Review, July 6). The term "therapeutic misconception" was coined by Paul S.

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