Doctors should be allowed to prescribe undisclosed placebos when no effective treatment exists

Placebo prescribing ethics remain contested among physicians and medical ethicists.

Overview Debates Related claims Topics

Younger patients should receive priority when lifesaving treatment is scarce

The psychological effect on a patient of receiving a drug prescribed by a doctor is beneficial in itself

Insurers should be barred from setting premiums using genetic tests

Competent adults should be allowed to sell a kidney

Parents should be allowed to select embryos against adult-onset inherited disease

A placebo's psychological effect is driven by the patient's confidence in the medical professional and their belief that they are receiving a cure

Prescribing undisclosed placebos is a form of deception

Creating human embryos solely for experimentation should be permitted

Canada should exclude mental illness as a sole condition for medically assisted dying

Parents should not be allowed to select embryos for predicted intelligence

Placebos should be used in experiments and the testing of new drugs

Placebos can be helpful for patients even if they are not the most effective treatment

Undisclosed placebos can be useful and effective in the short term

Placebos can improve patient symptoms

Widespread prescription of undisclosed placebos by doctors would lead to a general decline in healthcare costs

If no effective treatment exists for a patient, psychological treatments such as seeing a psychiatrist should be used instead of placebos

Medical professionals should consider the benefit of a treatment, not just its mechanism of action

Prescribing undisclosed placebos would cause long-term distrust in the medical system and in the doctors who provide the treatments

Medical professionals should be held to a standard that is higher than deceiving patients

Deceiving patients with placebos could create a slippery slope leading to more harmful deceptions