Human Guinea Pigs Get Paid
Yes, it's true. Professional human guinea pigs get paid for
participating in medical experiments. It reminds me of the scene
from the movie Monty Python's The Meaning Of Life, in
which the father explains to his 50 children that he can't afford
to feed them any longer. "It's medical experiments for the
lot of you," he announces, and all the children are sad
(after singing the infamous "sperm" song).
In real life it isn't so bad according to those that do this
for a living. You take a drug and get paid. That sounds easy
enough.
Medical, health and psychological research requires a steady
supply of humans for testing. Trials and experiments can be for
testing of new drugs, new medical devices, or even new psychological
therapies. They can also be general research into various diets,
exercise routines or other things related to health or medicine.
Volunteers - the human guinea pigs - who participate in the various
trials, tests and experiments get paid.
For example, there recently was a study done on the benefits
of a diet based on what the ancient hunter-gatherers ate. Volunteers
were paid $200 and given all the food they were to eat for the
three weeks of the study. Daily blood testing was one of the
requirements, but subjects were otherwise free to live their
lives normally.
Now, that is an example of a relatively low-paying job for
research participants (a nice term for guinea pigs). Every study,
trial or test has its own budget and pay-scale. Sometimes it
will hardly seem worth your while. On the other hand, there are
some people that make a living at this.
For example, in another study, subjects were paid $9,000 for
participating in three weeks of asthma research. This was much
more intrusive, requiring having a tube down the throat for most
of the time. You probably couldn't do this one if you had a regular
job. But $3,000 per week isn't all that bad. The requirements
of various tests will obviously vary, and the pay varies greatly
as well.
The website www.gpgp.net (guinea pigs get
paid) has info on drug trials and other studies that you
can get paid to participate in. What other ways can you find
these opportunities? Here are a few:
1. Try calling major research facilities.
2. Search online by typing in the various types into a search
engine ("dietary research volunteers," or "cancer
drug trials").
3. Find a group of people that participates in these trials
and experiments regularly if you want to do this more than once.
Hanging out with the other human guinea pigs (at least in an
online forum) is a great way to hear about new opportunities.
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Here's another odd way to make money selling a body part...
Selling
Hair
Well, it is the part which is least painful to sell. |
