Occasionally in the military, operational situations arise where it is necessary to consider giving to military personnel not-yet-approved medications for operational reasons, rather than clinical or therapeutic reasons. These operational situations are challenging for the medical personnel on the ground and the Human Research Ethics Committees/Research Ethics Committees/Institutional Review Boards who oversee the approval and use of these medications. This chapter draws upon generally accepted …
Read moreOccasionally in the military, operational situations arise where it is necessary to consider giving to military personnel not-yet-approved medications for operational reasons, rather than clinical or therapeutic reasons. These operational situations are challenging for the medical personnel on the ground and the Human Research Ethics Committees/Research Ethics Committees/Institutional Review Boards who oversee the approval and use of these medications. This chapter draws upon generally accepted bioethical principles, the Siracusa principles and the concept of supreme emergency to create a framework to assist medical practitioners and ethics committees in making informed consistent decisions in order to balance operational needs and risks to military personnel. Two cases are examined to test the framework approach and a flowchart to assist with decision making is provided in an Appendix.
