Nuremberg Code


INTRODUCTION

The Nuremberg code is a set of research ethical principles of human experimentation set as a result of the Nuremberg trials at the end second world war. This code gives conditions for the ethical conduct of research involving human subjects emphasizing voluntary consent to research. This code was formulated in August 1947 in Nuremberg, Germany.

NAZI HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION 

       The Nuremberg code was formed due to the response to inhuman nazi experimentation. It was a series of medical experiments on a large number of prisoners, including children by Nazi Germany in its camps in the early to mid-1940s, during the second world war.


   Nazi physicians and their assistants forced prisoners into participating; they did not willingly volunteer and no consent was given for the procedures. Typically, the experiments resulted in death, trauma, disfigurement, permanent disability, and such are considered examples of medical torture. The German physicians carried out the “Euthanasia” program which was the unlawful killing of unworthy people including thousands of prisoners in concentration camps without their consent, they also conducted medical experiments like sea water, high altitude, temperature tolerance bone transplantation, sterilization, typhus fever, poison bullets, etc. Most of the victims were Jews, Poles, Russians, and also Roma. They began on 20 November 1945, in Nuremberg, Germany, in what became known as the Nuremberg trails. In the trial of USA v. Brandt which became known as the “Doctor’s Trails”, German physicians were responsible for conducting unethical medical proceedings on humans during the second world war.

THE NUREMBERG TRIALS

 On December 9, 1946, an American military tribunal opened criminal proceedings against 23 leading German physicians and administrators for their willing participation in war crimes and crimes against humanity. The trials were held in the city of Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany, at the palace of justice. on this trial, there were 22 men and one woman and they were charged with murders, torcher, and other atrocities committed in the name of medical science. The victims of this crime were hundreds to thousands. 

The code was formulated in August 1947, in Nuremberg, Germany, by American judges sitting in the judgment of Nazi doctors accused of conducting murderous and torturous human experiments in the concentration camps. It has rightly been characterized as the most authoritative set of rules for the protection of human subjects in medical research. Three physicians had a central role in the formulation of the Code – Leo Alexander, Werner Leibbrand, and Andrew Ivy. They worked together with US prosecuting attorneys, especially Telford Taylor and James McHaney, to present evidence of murder and torture under the guise of medical experimentation to a panel of US judges.  The trial described and documented some of the most gruesome and painful medical experiments carried out by Nazi Doctors. Of the 23 defendants, 7 were sentenced the death by hanging, 9 were given prison terms and 7 were found not guilty. 

 This judgment established a new standard of ethical medical behavior for the post second world war human rights era. Amongst other requirements, this document enunciates the requirements of voluntary informed consent of the human subject. The principle of voluntary informed consent protects the right of the individual to control his own body. This code recognizes that doctors should avoid actions that injure human patients. 

THE NUREMBERG CODE

    The principles established by this code for medical practice now have been extended into general codes of medical ethics. These principles must be observed to satisfy moral, ethical, and legal concepts.

  1. The voluntary consent of human subjects is absolutely essential.

  2. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society.

  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.

  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 a prior reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur.

  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.

  9. use of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end.

  10. During the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has any probable 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 like to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.




REFERENCES





WRITTEN BY: VAISHNAVI VANGA

B.PHARMACY

CSRPL_INT_ONL_WKD_138/0722


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts