Abstract
The historic policy of excluding women of childbearing age from participation in research has recently become a matter of public concern. Women constitute an increasing percentage of HIV-infected individuals, and this disease is only one of the many in which the effects of treatments cannot be reliably known in this population without their admission to trials. It is long past time to reassess the moral and legal basis of this exclusionary practice. In this paper we outline the nature of the issue and identify a number of unfounded assumptions that have permitted this problem to fester.
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