[Medical research and vulnerable subjects: unemployed people]

Although the importance of medical research for the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases is unquestionable, the use of human subjects, however, still presents a complex ethical problem. Moral difficulties occur in particular when the medical research deals with vulnerable subjects. Vulnerable individuals are defined as those who experience diminished actual autonomy. Among the groups which should be considered as being vulnerable are usually listed the following: children, pregnant women, mentally or emotionally disabled, physically disabled, homeless, and institutionalized people. This study addresses key concerns that gave rise to the question of whether unemployed people had to be recognized as vulnerable subjects. The term "vulnerability" was clarified and it was assumed that the "vulnerability" of medical research subjects' had to be understood as a form of continuum from potential, through the circumstantial, temporal, episodic, permanent to inevitable vulnerability. The conclusion was drawn that unemployed people were, at least, potentially vulnerable subjects. Research involving unemployed people presents important moral challenges to researchers and should be undertaken very carefully, following special ethical guidelines.