Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jan;108(1):42-46.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2017.304103. Epub 2017 Nov 21.

Beyond Nazi War Crimes Experiments: The Voluntary Consent Requirement of the Nuremberg Code at 70

George J Annas  1
Affiliations

Beyond Nazi War Crimes Experiments: The Voluntary Consent Requirement of the Nuremberg Code at 70

George J Annas. Am J Public Health. 2018 Jan.

Abstract

The year 2017 marks both the 70th anniversary of the Nuremberg Code and the first major revisions of federal research regulations in almost 3 decades. I suggest that the informed consent provisions of the federal research regulations continue to follow the requirements of the Nuremberg Code. However, modifications are needed to the informed consent (and institutional review board) provisions to make the revised federal regulations more effective in promoting a genuine conversation between the researcher and the research subject. This conversation must take seriously both the therapeutic illusion and the desire of both the researcher and the research subject not to engage in sharing uncertainty.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment in

References

    1. Henckaerts JM, Doseald-Beck L. Customary International Humanitarian Law Vol. 1: Rules. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press; 2005.
    1. Annas GJ, Grodin MA. The Nazi Doctors and the Nuremberg Code: Human Rights in Human Experimentation. New York, NY: Oxford University Press; 1992.
    1. Skloot R. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York, NY: Crown; 2010.
    1. Annas GJ, Glantz LH, Katz BF. Informed Consent to Human Experimentation: The Subject’s Dilemma. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger; 1977.
    1. Jones DS, Grady C, Lederer SE. “Ethics and clinical Research”: the 50th Anniversary of Beecher’s bombshell. N Engl J Med. 2016;374(24):2393–2398. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources