ABSTRACT
Placebo treatments are often prescribed by clinicians. Placebo treatments are claimed to be unethical for two reasons. Firstly, they are supposedly ineffective, so the ethical requirement of beneficence makes their use unethical. Secondly, they allegedly require deception for their use, which violates patient autonomy. This chapter expresses that in cases where placebos are effective options and do not require deception, they are arguably ethical. Importantly, questions about the magnitude of placebo effects and about whether placebos require deception are empirical questions with ethical implications rather than purely ethical ones. For treating some ailments such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), they could be the best available treatment, and for other ailments such as pain, they might have the most desirable benefit–harm ratio. Therefore, placebo use in clinical practice can be ethical and any regulatory restrictions against their use should be revised.
