1996/11/27 by Jay Katz · 4 citations
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Medical History and Research #Torture, Ethics, and Law #Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism
paper · doi:10.1001/jama.1996.03540200048030
openalex publication_date 1996/11/27 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
The Nuremberg Code includes 10 principles to guide physician-investigators in experiments involving human subjects. These principles, particularly the first principle on "voluntary consent," primarily were based on legal concepts because medical codes of ethics existent at the time of the Nazi atrocities did not address consent and other safeguards for human subjects. The US judges who presided over the proceedings did not intend the Code to apply only to the case before them, to be a response to the atrocities committed by the Nazi physicians, or to be inapplicable to research as it is customarily carried on in medical institutions. Instead, a careful reading of the judgment suggests that they wrote the Code for the practice of human experimentation whenever it is being conducted.