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This Medication May Kill You: Cognitive Overload And Forced Commercial Speech, Devin S. Schindler, Tracey Brame

Bioethics: Preparing for the Unknown

The Federal Government requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide prospective customers with an extraordinary amount of information. Justified under the doctrine of informed consent, the Food and Drug Administration has imposed comprehensive guidelines that regulate virtually every aspect of how medications can be marketed. Similar obligations are imposed on physicians involved in biomedical research.

Although informed consent is a cornerstone to the ethical practice of medicine, recent studies employing fMRI technology suggest that mandated disclosure of “too much” information can result in cognitive overload and irrational decision making. The paradoxical effect of the mandated disclosure requirements is that they likely lead …