Women in Clinical Trials
When new drugs or medical procedures are ready to be tested on human subjects, researchers find volunteers for clinical trials. However, far more men than women are used as subjects during these trials.
It was widely assumed for many years that women and men would respond to medication in the same way. Therefore, it did not seem to matter whether men or women were participating in clinical trials. Because of this, researchers mostly drew from pools of male volunteers because they were perceived to be more low-risk (and accordingly, less expensive to include in a trial). Women who are pregnant, nursing, post-menopausal or even simply of childbearing age are considered too "risky" to participate in clinical trials. These parameters essentially eliminate all women. However, it is difficult to determine whether this decision to eliminate women was made out of beneficence or paternalism.
The main problem with this gender discrepancy is that men and women are physiologically different. Their bodies process medications and respond to treatments differently. The over-representation of men in clinical trials has impeded the progress of understanding how new medications will affect women.
Question: Which of the following statements would the author most likely agree with?

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The author states that "it is difficult to determine whether this decision to eliminate women was made out of beneficence or paternalism." In other words, either beneficence (doing good; looking out for others' well-being) or paternalism (domination by males) could explain the lack of women in clinical studies.
It is sufficient to test only men in clinical studies because it can be risky to test certain women. This is given as a reason that women were excluded from clinical trials in the past, but the author disagrees with this line of thinking. Rather, the author thinks that women should be included in trials.
Women should stop taking any medications that have not been tested on women. The author does not suggest that women should stop taking such medications-that could be very dangerous in and of itself. He or she only suggests that women need to be included in future trials.
Women should be paid more for the drug trials that they participate in. There is nothing in this passage that suggests that women should be paid more when participating in drug tests.