The exercises in this section on ethics are designed to help you think about the issues that we are discussing and to formulate some opinions. In general, there are no wrong or right answers but you need to give reasons for your answers.

Question 3.77

3.77 Is this study ethical?

Researchers on aging proposed to investigate the effect of supplemental health services on the quality of life of older people. Eligible patients of a large medical clinic were to be randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The treatment group would be offered hearing aids, dentures, transportation, and other services not available without charge to the control group. The review board felt that providing these services to some but not other persons in the same institution raised ethical questions. Do you agree?