 One of the most influential responses to this concern (Freedman 1987) argues that randomization is acceptable when the study in question satisfies what has come to be known as ‘clinical equipoise.’ Clinical equipoise obtains when, for the population of patients from which participants will be selected, the available clinical evidence does not favor one of the treatments being used over the others. In addition, it must be the case that there are no treatments available outside the trial that are better than those used in the trial. Satisfaction of these conditions seems to imply that the interests of research participants will not be undermined in the service of collecting scientific information. If the available data do not favor any of the treatments being used, randomizing participants seems as good a process as any other for choosing which treatment they receive.