Parade Magazine Article on Clinical Trials

Most of us involved in the fight against cystic fibrosis know about clinical trials. Samantha hasn't taken part in any trials yet, and I don't expect we'll be interested in that for a few more years at least, but we of course know about them. I recently wrote my congressman about them, in fact, and you can read his reply here.

You can imagine my distress then, as a father of a future-clinical trials participant, to see an article in Parade this Sunday titled "Are Clinical Trials Safe?" This was written, by the way, by a doctor at NYU's Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. Why is she spooking everyone with that title?

What's worse about it is that inside, she says very, very little to back up the title. Clearly, she or some editor just wanted to hook people in to the article. While this is a reality for writers, I would think she and the editorial staff at the magazine would actually write about the issue. In fact, I would have liked her to answer the question she poses. I just didn't finish the article with the sense that she actually answered the question.

You can read the article by clicking on the title. This won't color my desire someday to encourage Samantha to participate (although the decision will be hers), but it was slightly disturbing to read...all for no reason in the end.