Research Ethics: Historical Background

Excerpts from the Paper

Research Ethics: Historical Background
Summary
This paper examines the key ethical issues, resulting conclusions, and underlying assumptions pertaining to experimental medical research and testing performed on human subjects in a historical context. The authors describe how medical experiments conducted on human subjects have taken place two hundred years of human history; however the pivotal period was reached with the Nuremberg trials following the ghastly experiments of WWII. The result of these trials was the Nuremberg Code, which emphasizes the importance of consent in human experimentation. The Code is meant to apply globally, but issues concerning ethics become more significant when viewed from the perspective of different cultures....

.....and ethical considerations, the authors suggest that it is now time to look beyond cultural implications regarding ethics, and start asking how human participation in medical research could benefit humans in the future. The question of responsibility or duty to future generations puts the subject of medical testing on humans in the same realm as global warming, fossil fuel depletion, and population growth: It is no longer a question of right or wrong, but rather of what steps we as a species take to ensure our survival and advancement into the future.
Works Cited
Roy, David J., John R. Williams, and Bernard M. Dickens. “Research Ethics: Historical Background.” In Bioethics in Canda. Pp 322-332, 334-338. Scarborough, ON: Prentice Hall, 1994.