[The shaping of ethical approach to medical experimentation in Poland]

Abstract

Contemporary awareness of bioethical norms in treatment and research experiments in medicine underwent a long evolution in Poland. The process was similar to that of other countries developing this kind of research. The negative experiences of World War II resulted in tendency to curb experimentation on humans. The seventies witnessed a heated discussion leading to settlement of this problem. The argument was that stringent limitations on such experiments would stop the development of new, indispensable drugs. This discussion also reached Poland where the majority of participants were doctors and lawyers expressing their views mostly in the press. This led in consequence to the establishment of the first ethical norms in medical experiment on humans. These were expressed in subsequent codes of ethics for the medical profession as well as in the founding of the first bioethical commissions at medical schools. Currently such norms based on the so-called "good clinical practice" standards were incorporated in the legal acts that establish bioethical committees at medical schools and other medical institutes. This paper also presents some specific aspects of research on female patients.