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Summary Research Ethics Milestones

The document outlines the historical milestones in research ethics, beginning with unethical experiments during the Nazi regime and leading to the establishment of the Nuremberg Code, which emphasized voluntary participation and informed consent. It discusses subsequent developments, including the Declaration of Helsinki and the Belmont Report, which introduced key ethical principles such as respect, beneficence, and justice. The National Research Act of 1974 further solidified protections for research participants by mandating ethical guidelines and oversight.

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8 views2 pages

Summary Research Ethics Milestones

The document outlines the historical milestones in research ethics, beginning with unethical experiments during the Nazi regime and leading to the establishment of the Nuremberg Code, which emphasized voluntary participation and informed consent. It discusses subsequent developments, including the Declaration of Helsinki and the Belmont Report, which introduced key ethical principles such as respect, beneficence, and justice. The National Research Act of 1974 further solidified protections for research participants by mandating ethical guidelines and oversight.

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angeladorcas808
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Summary of Research Ethics Milestones

A Short History of the Development of Protections


for People Who Participate in Research

1. Nazi Experimentation (early 1940s)


Doctors in Nazi concentration camps forced prisoners to take part in dangerous
experiments. Examples of unethical experiments were forcing prisoners to be
sterilized and be infected with diseases.

2. Nuremberg “Doctors Trial” (1946-1947)


A U.S. military court in Nuremberg, Germany, charged 23 Nazi doctors and
officials with war crimes, including unethical medical experiments on
concentration camp prisoners. Sixteen Nazis were executed or sent to prison.

3. Nuremberg Code (1947)


After the Nuremberg Doctors Trial, the judges listed important principles of
acceptable medical experiments. These principles became known as the
Nuremberg Code. Important principles are:
– Research participation must be voluntary.
– Research studies cannot put people at high risk of disability or death.
– Participants can quit a study at any time.

4. Willowbrook Study (1963-1966)


Willowbrook was a home for children with mental disabilities in New York City.
Researchers deliberately injected children with hepatitis to learn about the
disease.

5. Declaration of Helsinki (1964)


The World Medical Association, meeting in Helsinki, Finland, approved principles
for ethical research. Important principles are:
– Research plans should be reviewed by an independent committee, such as
an Institutional Review Board (IRB).
– Research participants must give their “informed consent” to be in a study.
– Risks of being in a study should not outweigh benefits.

6. Tuskegee Syphilis Study (Ended 1972)


The Patient Advisor Toolkit 1: Orientation for Patient Advisory Committees (PAT-1, http://www.hipxchange.org/PAT-1) by Betty Kaiser, PhD, RN and Gay
Thomas, MA of the Wisconsin Network for Research Support (http://www.winrs.nursing.wisc.edu) at the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of
Nursing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Starting in 1932, doctors from the U.S. Public Health Service studied African-
American men in Alabama with syphilis. Medications to treat syphilis were
available, but doctors wanted to study long-term effects of the disease. Doctors did
not give men the medications they needed, and dozens of men died of syphilis or
its complications. The study did not end until 1972 when details about it became
public.

7. National Research Act (1974)


The act did two major things to stop unethical research on people: 1) It required
the U.S. government to create rules to protect people in research studies. 2) It
created a national committee to develop guidelines for ethical research. These
guidelines are in the Belmont Report.

8. Belmont Report (1979)


The report listed three basic principles for the ethical treatment of people who
participate in research:
– Respect
– “Doing good”
– Justice
Examples of the three principles include:
– Respect: People must have a choice about what happens to them.
– “Doing good”: The risks of a study cannot outweigh the possible benefits.
– Justice: The benefits and risks of research should be fairly shared across
society.

The Patient Advisor Toolkit 1: Orientation for Patient Advisory Committees (PAT-1, http://www.hipxchange.org/PAT-1) by Betty Kaiser, PhD, RN and Gay
Thomas, MA of the Wisconsin Network for Research Support (http://www.winrs.nursing.wisc.edu) at the University of Wisconsin – Madison School of
Nursing is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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