RESEARCH ETHICS Definition
The moral principles and actions guiding and shaping research from its inception to its completion; the dissemination of findings and the archiving, future use, sharing and linking of data. Research ethics in the social sciences initially drew on the “patient protection” model of medical research. More recently, it has broadened in scope to include consideration of benefits, risks and harms to all persons connected with and affected by the research and the social responsibilities of researchers.
Brief History of Ethics
Throughout history, evidence suggests that ethical issues in human experimentation had been recognized and addressed as early as the late 1800s. The 1947 Nuremberg Code is commonly cited as the first document to govern the conduct of human research. The main cause of that is the war trials of Nazi physicians accused of conducting “murderous and torturous human experiments” on prisoners in concentration camps in the name of medical science in 1946/1947. This code included 10 ethical principles. Link: https://media.tghn.org/medialibrary/2011/04/BMJ_No_7070_Volume_313_Th e_Nuremberg_Code.pdf
The World Medical Association published the “Declaration of Helsinki” in 1964. This declaration expands on the ten ethical principles of Nuremberg code, but excludes 2 of the 12 items to address perceived deficiencies in the Nuremberg Code. This declaration continuously undergoes revisions. Link: https://www.who.int/bulletin/archives/79(4)373.pdf
The 1947 Nuremberg Code is commonly cited as the first document to govern the conduct of human research. The main cause of that is the war trials of Nazi physicians accused of conducting “murderous and torturous human experiments” on prisoners in concentration camps in the name of medical science in 1946/1947. This code included The National Research Act in 1974 was enacted in response to the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis carried out from 1932 to 1972 that withheld effective therapy for syphilis from hundreds of African American men to observe the progression of syphilis, presumably for the sake of medical research without telling them about the threats of these trails.
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