 It is one thing to expose a consenting adult to risks to save the health or life of an identified and present other, particularly when the two individuals are first degree relatives. It is another thing, or seems to many to be another thing, to expose consenting individuals to risks to help unknown and unidentified, and possibly future others. Almost no one objects to operating on a healthy, consenting adult to obtain a kidney that might save a present and ailing sibling, even though the operation poses some risk of serious harm and offers the donor no potential for clinical benefit. Attempts to obtain a kidney from a healthy, consenting adult and give it to an unidentified individual are met with greater ethical concern. The extent of the concern increases as the path from risk exposure to benefit becomes longer and more tenuous. Many clinical research studies expose participants to risks in order to collect generalizable information which, if combined with the results of other, as yet non-existent studies, may eventually benefit future patients through the identification of a new intervention, assuming the appropriate regulatory authorities approve it, some company or group chooses to manufacture it, and patients can afford to purchase it. The potential benefits of clinical research may thus be realized someday, but the risks and burdens are clear and present.