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Issues in Preparing Ethical Guidelines for Epidemiological Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2021

Bernard M. Dickens
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Extract

The Nuremberg Code of 1947 is often taken to mark the beginning of the modern age of ethical codes for medical and health-related research with human subjects. The 1947 Code was fashioned in response to inhumane medical experimentation revealed at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. The fact that, prior to 1939, Germany had an ethical code for human research in medicine that appears sensitive and sophisticated even by current standards indicates that codes in themselves do not assure ethical conduct. Nevertheless, calls continue for the preparation of codes of conduct to guide the exercise of ethical judgment in health-related research.

Medical research concerned with individual subjects as such now possesses codes or guidelines at many levels, including funding agency, research institutional, national and international levels. The World Medical Association's Helsinki Code is now in its fourth version, and the Guidelines proposed in 1982 by the World Health Organization affiliate, the Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS) is about to be revised to take account of a decade of significant developments.

Type
Article
Information
Law, Medicine and Healthcare , Volume 19 , Issue 3-4 , Fall Winter 1991 , pp. 175 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1991

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References

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