This wasn’t a topic that I felt very educated about prior to this week’s lesson. I never really considered how horrifying it would be to conduct human-centered trials without laws and ethics firmly established beforehand. Nazi Germany is used as a representation of these kinds of experiments without solid ethics, and it is, of course, one of the most infamous examples of human rights violation in modern history. I had never previously considered the connection between something as horrible as the Nazi experiments and modern-day medical trials. This lesson really put into perspective for me just how far ethics in healthcare has come.

Going through the lessons and readings this week, I feel profound relief that laws and ethics codes have been developed for any human-based research study. In modern times, I do feel that trial participants’ rights are adequately protected. The Nuremberg Code, established in 1947 made it mandatory to have the informed consent of study participants and also established the participant’s right to withdraw from the study at any point (Annas, 2018). These two concepts, I think, are of core importance to protecting the rights of people participating in human-centered trials. In my opinion, another key ethical concept was established with the Declaration of Helsinki in 1964. The declaration established that if a person was caused harm by the medical trial they participated in, they should have compensation and treatment. Additionally, if the variable treatment was deemed effective, it should also be offered to the control group as well. The Declaration of Helsinki also established that trials need “to protect life, health, privacy, and dignity” of the human subjects, and also established the need for research review to approve and monitor any research conducted with human subjects (Chamberlain College of Nursing, 2024).  

I do feel that the establishment of these codes and declarations, as well as those which have been established since, do an appropriate job of protecting human rights during these trials in modern times.

References:

Annas G. J. (2018). Beyond Nazi War Crimes Experiments: The Voluntary Consent Requirement of the Nuremberg Code at 70. American journal of public health, 108(1), 42–46. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2017.304103Links to an external site.

Chamberlain College of Nursing. (2024). Week Six -Research Ethics. Chamberlain University. https://chamberlain.instructure.com/courses/154367/pages/week-6-research-ethics?module_item_id=22415102