Shadreck Mwale

Across the globe, thousands of Phase 1 interventional clinical trials take place every year and many healthy participants are recruited to participate in such trials. Participation in these phase 1 interventional clinical trials is not without ethical concerns, and many who take part are at risk of harm and exploitation. To date, approaches to ethical consideration have been guided by legal codes such as the Nuremberg code, and the Helsinki Declaration.

INTRODUCTION By diagnostic category, people living with dementia (PLWD) are the single largest patient group admitted to acute National Health Service (NHS) hospital settings (authors). Official figures suggest that as many as 1 in 4 NHS beds are occupied by PLWD (Alzheimer’s Society, 2016; DoH, 2014), reflecting international prevalence estimates within the acute setting of 12.9%–63.0% (Mukadam & Sampson, 2011).

The classic children’s story ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’, catches the imagination with its allegory of logical fallacies and fear of and failure to criticise. Still, it is the way it classically embodies society’s seditious reticence, a state where everyone refuses to accept the obvious truth that is equally confronting. In this post I want to explore this in the context of health inequalities and racism.