From: jfh@netcom.com (Jack Hamilton)
Subject: Re: Legality of placebos?
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Lines: 40

calzone@athena.mit.edu wrote:
>
>
>How is it that placebos are legal?  It would seem to me that if, as a patient,
>you purchase a drug you've been prescribed and it's just sugar (or whatever),
>there's a few legal complications that arise:
>
>	1. 
>If you have been diagnosed with a condition and you aren't given accepted
>treatment for it, it seems like intentional medical malpractice.

A placebo is an accepted treatment at times. 

>	2.
>A placebo should fall, legally, under the label of quackery (why not?)

Why should it?  Placebos are effective under certain circumstances.  That's
why they're used.  

Actually, I don't know know anyone who has actually gotten a "sugar pill".
I don't know how it could be done, since prescription drugs are always
labeled, and it's easy enough to find out what's in a pill if you have the
name.

It's more common to prescribe a drug which is effective for something, just
not for what you have.  Antibiotics for viral infections are the most
common such placebo. 

>	3.
>Getting what you pay for.  (Deceptive "bait and switch" to an extreme...).  False
>advertising  (what if McDonalds didn't put 100% pure beef in their hamburgers?)

I'm not sure what you mean by this.  What do you think you're paying for?
You're not entitled to a prescription drug just because you pay for a
doctor's appointment.  

-- 

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Jack Hamilton  KD6TTL  jfh@netcom.com  PO Box 281107  SF, CA  94128  USA
