Ethics Term of the Week #2: The Declaration of Helsinki

The Nuremberg Code of 1947 was developed after the second World War in response to inhumane medical trials conducted on prisoners of war by German researchers. During the Nuremberg Trials, the researchers argued that there were no international regulations preventing them from conducting these experiments, which prompted the actual creation of the Nuremberg Code (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, n.d.).

The issue with the Nuremberg Code was that it was too closely associated with Nazi war crimes and did not hold much legal power (Goodyear et al., 2007). So, in 1964, a new document was drafted to ensure compliance with ethical clinical research practices: the Declaration of Helsinki.

The Declaration of Helsinki was established by the World Medical Association and consists of a set of general principles and various other notable categories of principles, including but not limited to Vulnerable Groups and Individuals, Scientific Requirements and Research Protocols, Informed Consent, and Use of Placebo. The full declaration can be accessed through the World Medical Association: https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-helsinki-ethical-principles-for-medical-research-involving-human-subjects/.

The declaration is a “living document,” meaning it is subject to change and revision as necessary (Wah, 2014). In April of 2022, the American Medical Association took on leadership of another upcoming revision to the Declaration of Helsinki (World Medical Association, n.d.). 

References

Goodyear, M. D. E., Krleza-Jeric, K., & Lemmens, T. (2007, September 29). The Declaration of Helsinki. PubMed Central. Retrieved April 6, 2023, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1995496/ 

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (n.d.). The Nuremberg Code. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Retrieved April 6, 2023, from https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-nuremberg-code 

Wah, R. M. (2014, November 18). Declaration of helsinki a reminder that medicine has no boundaries. American Medical Association. Retrieved April 6, 2023, from https://www.ama-assn.org/about/leadership/declaration-helsinki-reminder-medicine-has-no-boundaries.

WMA - The World Medical Association-Declaration of helsinki. The World Medical Association. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2023, from https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/