The Nuremberg Code on Human Experimentation. A Historical Overview
DOINA COSMANABSTRACT. Current ethical codes cover aspects related to good medical practice, the doctor-patient relationship, essential issues in medical practice regarding life and death (e.g., abortion, euthanasia), and research issues (experiments on animals or humans). It is assumed that the researcher is a clinician, and thus the researcher-subject relationship is viewed in the perspective of the doctor-patient relationship. Perspectives are varied because researchers may or may not be clinicians, subjects may or may not have health problems, and the experimental context may differ from a specific medical environment.
Keywords: The Nuremberg Code; human experiments; ethical codes; researcher-subject relationship; self-perception; motivation