Democratic reciprocity model: a justification of continued access to an investigational medicine in clinical research

In this paper, Dr. Mastroleo develops a normative model for the obligation of continued access to an investigational medicine towards research subjects from the perspective of social or distributive justice inspired in the theory of justice of John Rawls. He calls this the democratic reciprocity model. The original idea of the democratic reciprocity model is to claim that the obligation of continued access correlates with the right to health. Thus, within the Rawlsian framework, he argues that the moral reasons giving weight to the obligation of continued access are, indirectly, the principle of fair equality of opportunity and, directly, the duty of justice and/or the principle of fairness that apply to the members of a society understood as a system of social cooperation. INSTITUTION: CONICET, Argentina. [Article in Spanish]