Letter to HHS Secretary and Assistant Secretary for Health Criticizing Revised Policy on Remuneration of Human Research Subjects
The sudden removal of a key clause from a Department of Health and Human Services guidance document issued by the Office for Human Research Protections could lead to human subjects of research being pressured to take on greater risks that they would not otherwise have accepted because they could now be offered greater remuneration in exchange for accepting risk. This change undermines protections for human subjects, increases the potential for exploitation, and should have been subject to public input before being implemented.
January 13, 2014, Response from the Secretary of Health and Human Services