Dropkick Murphys -The Boys Are Back

Dropkick Murphys -The Boys Are Back

The Nuremberg Code (1947)

THE NUREMBERG CODE
Permissible Medical Experiments
The great weight of the evidence before us is to the effect that certain types of medical
experiments on human beings, when kept within reasonably well-defined bounds, conform to the
ethics of the medical profession generally. The protagonists of the practice of human
experimentation justify their views on the basis that such experiments yield results for the good of
society that are unprocurable by other methods or means of study. All agree, however, that certain
basic principles must be observed in order to satisfy moral, ethical and legal concepts:
1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.
This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so
situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of
force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and
should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter
involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element
requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there
should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method
and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonably to be
expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his
participation in the experiment.
The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual
who initiates, directs or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which
may not be delegated to another with impunity.
2. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable
by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature.
3. The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and
a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated
results will justify the performance of the experiment.
4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental
suffering and injury.
5. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or
disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental
physicians also serve as subjects.
6. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian
importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.
7. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the
experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death.
8. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest
degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who
conduct or engage in the experiment.
9. During the course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the
experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the
experiment seems to him to be impossible.
10. During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the
experiment at any stage, if he has probably cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith,
superior skill and careful judgment required of him that a continuation of the experiment is likely
to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.

Source
THE NUREMBERG CODE [from Trials of War Criminals before the Nuremberg Military
Tribunals under Control Council Law No. 10. Nuremberg, October 1946–April 1949.
Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O, 1949–1953.]

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