US medical researchers, the Nuremberg Doctors Trial, and the Nuremberg Code. A review of findings of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments
R. R. Faden, S. E. Lederer and J. D. Moreno
The Bioethics Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md 21205-1996, USA.
The Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments (ACHRE), established
to review allegations of abuses of human subjects in federally sponsored
radiation research, was charged with identifying appropriate standards to
evaluate the ethics of cold war radiation experiments. One central question
for ACHRE was to determine what role, if any, the Nuremberg Code played in
the norms and practices of US medical researchers. Based on the evidence
from ACHRE's Ethics Oral History Project and extensive archival research,
we conclude that the Code, at the time it was promulgated, had little
effect on mainstream medical researchers engaged in human subjects
research. Although some clinical investigators raised questions about the
conduct of research involving human beings, the medical profession did not
pursue this issue until the 1960s.
