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XXVI. Medical ethics and the architecture of clinical research
Author(s) -
Feinstein Alvan R.
Publication year - 1974
Publication title -
clinical pharmacology and therapeutics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.941
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1532-6535
pISSN - 0009-9236
DOI - 10.1002/cpt1974153316
Subject(s) - scope (computer science) , legislation , medical research , engineering ethics , medical ethics , medicine , political science , law , environmental ethics , engineering , pathology , philosophy , computer science , programming language
Before World War II, most of the activities called medical research were performed in laboratories, upon materials that were animals, inanimate objects, or substances derived from living people. During the past few decades, the scope and volume of clinical investigation have enlarged so that intact living people have been increasingly involved as the “material” of the research. The use of living people as the investigated subjects has heightened interest in medical ethics and expanded it to include specific attention to issues in medical research. The attention was particularly spurred in the past few years after Beecher 3 in the United States and Pappworth 25 in the United Kingdom presented prominent indictments of various “unethical” activities in clinical investigation. These indictments helped arouse concern and stimulate the various new standards, committees, and legislation that have subsequently been proposed as prophylaxis for undesirable ethical phenomena.