 In some cases, receipt of potential new treatments is in the ex ante interests of research participants. For example, the risks posed by an experimental cancer treatment might be justified by the possibility that it will extend participants’ lives. Moreover, the risk/benefit profile of the treatment might be as favorable for participants as the risk/benefit profile of the available alternatives. In these cases, receipt of the experimental intervention ex ante promotes participants’ interests. In other cases, participation in research poses ‘net’ risks, that is, risks of harm which are not, or not entirely, justified by potential clinical benefits to individual participants. A first in human trial of an experimental treatment might involve a single dose to see whether humans can tolerate it. And it might occur in healthy individuals who have no need of treatment. These studies pose risks to participants and offer essentially no chance for clinical benefit. The qualifier to ‘essentially’ no chance of clinical benefit is intended to capture the fact that the research procedures included in clinical trials may inadvertently end up providing some clinical benefit to some participants. For example, a biopsy that is used to collect research data may disclose a previously unidentified and treatable condition. The chance for such benefit, albeit real, is typically so remote that it is not sufficient to compensate for the risks of the procedure. Whether a study as a whole poses net risks depends on whether the potential benefits of the experimental intervention compensate for its risks plus the net risks of the research procedures included in the study.