Selling Your Body: It's Not Just For Prostitutes Anymore

As unemployment rates continue to rise, thousands of people are left desperate for cash. Luckily, they are also left with a lot more free time. Some will spend this time obsessively monitoring craigslist or monster.com, and sending out a form letter to each new post that appears. Others have already given up on that well-worn path to a paycheck, and chosen to pursue alternative means of income until they land their dream job.

Once only popular among starving artists, musicians, and sometimes students, compensated participation in experimental drug trials is becoming an attractive opportunity to a wider (and growing) group of newly unemployed. Just yesterday WNYC's Brian Lehrer interviewed several listeners who were involved in such trials. The perks can include not only a fat check at the end of the experiment, but also free medical care for the span of the trial (a big plus for the uninsured.) The latest issue of Psychology Today also includes an article about the growing number of "normal, healthy research volunteers."

Hopefully, with this expansion of the demographic of pharmaceutical guinea pigs, the stigma of desperation around voluntering for this trials will erode. Perhaps eventually this will mitigate the drug companies' tradition of exploiting the truly desperate or defenseless, including children and undocumented immigrants.