Ideas & Debates 01
Research Ethics & Human Experimentation
Who may be enrolled in research, under what conditions, and with whose consent?
Introduction
Research involving human beings creates a fundamental ethical tension. Scientific knowledge can improve medicine and public health, but producing that knowledge may expose individuals and communities to burdens, risks, or interventions undertaken partly for the benefit of others.
American research ethics developed through repeated disputes over the limits of scientific authority, the meaning of voluntary consent, the protection of vulnerable populations, the fair distribution of research burdens and benefits, and the responsibilities of institutions that conduct and oversee research.
The history is therefore more than the development of rules for informed consent. It is also a history of power, trust, justice, representation, and the governance of science.
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How the Debate Developed
A focused pathway through canonical records in the American Bioethics Project.
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1946-1947
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1947
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1966
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1972
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1974
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1974–1978
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1979
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1993-1994
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A Debate That Changed
1940s
What makes human experimentation permissible?
1960s–70s
How should research participants be protected?
1970s
What principles should govern research?
1980s–90s
Who gets to participate in decisions about research?
1990s
Can exclusion from research itself be unjust?
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People in the Debate
Canonical Person records currently available to this visitor.
Person
Henry K. Beecher
American physician and anesthesiologist whose work helped make the ethics of research involving human subjects a central concern of American bioethics.
Person
Patricia A. King
American legal scholar and civil rights lawyer whose work helped shape American bioethics through national ethics commissions, health law, and sustained attention to justice, race, and the social dimensions of biomedical policy.
Person
Ruth Faden
American bioethics scholar whose work on informed consent, autonomy, justice, and public health ethics has contributed to research ethics and broader debates about health and social justice.
Person
Tom L. Beauchamp
American philosopher and bioethics scholar associated with the Belmont Report and with the development of principlism in biomedical ethics.
Person
James F. Childress
American ethicist and bioethics scholar whose collaborative work on principles of biomedical ethics became a major framework for teaching and analyzing ethical problems in health care.
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Questions to Consider
- Is informed consent sufficient to make research ethically acceptable?
- When does protecting a population from research become unjust exclusion from research?
- Who should have authority to determine which research risks are acceptable?
- How should histories of exploitation affect contemporary expectations of trust in research institutions?