Understanding Ethic Directives and their Impacts on Society:
The Nuremberg Code, Declaration of Helsinki, and the Belmont Report
Yesenia Angel
East Los Angeles College
On August 1947, there was a Medical Case Trial in Nuremberg that had finally come to a verdict and in that verdict there was a section that would become important for human subject research, Nuremberg Code. The Nuremberg code, also known as Permissible Medical Experiments, is the first international code of ethics. The Nuremberg Code is what would come to be the basic principles required in order for a human subject research to be conducted with enough moral, ethical and legal concepts. As a result of this the Nuremberg Code now …show more content…
The Belmont Report is the ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research. As one can tell by the title this is in a way similar to the Nuremberg Code because they both seek to protect the people in the research experiments. The Belmont Report has three principles that are most important when it comes to conducting research involving people: Respect for person, beneficence, and justice. Respect for persons includes seeing individuals as human beings, for example acknowledging what could be harmful and beneficial in a situation, then analyzing how that affects the person’s goals and values, and lastly using that analysis to do something about it. If the person involved in the research is in some way incapable of making an informed decision then they have additional protections. For example children are unable to make a well informed decision and therefore require that extra protection, such as signed permission from a parent or legal guardian. Beneficence is when the person in the experiment is treated in such an ethical manner that they aren’t just respected for their decisions and protected from harm, but are also making sure their well-being is secure. This can be broken down into two rules, which are do not harm and while reducing any possible danger or harm also maximize. Last but not least is justice, which ensures that all the people involved in the experiment are treated fairly as well as equally in regards to getting both the bad and the good of the research being conducted. While justice sounds like everybody will be getting treated equally and not one person will receive more benefits from the research than another person, which in