Abstract

Research is crucial to improve medicine's ability to care for the sick, and this includes research on conditions affecting cognition. This article focuses on whether persons suffering from diseases affecting cognition can be enrolled in research when the purpose is to investigate the condition leading to this impairment. It also discusses when they may be enrolled and on the precautions which are necessary if they are. Protections for vulnerable persons in research have two components: fair subject selection, and the specific care required to minimize wrongs to vulnerable persons once they are enrolled in research. Finally, the article examines, and rejects, the idea that there could be circumstances in which persons suffering from diseases affecting cognition could have an obligation to participate in research addressing these disorders.