The Nuremberg Code was created in 1947 in Nuremberg, Germany, following the trial of a group of Nazi doctors accused of conducting inhumane and often deadly experiments on prisoners of concentration camps without their consent. At the conclusion of what’s also referred to as ‘The Doctors Trial’, 16 people were found guilty.
The Nuremberg Code was developed in response to the horrors of this experimentation, with the aim of protecting human subjects in medical research. The Code, and particularly its emphasis on informed consent, has had a profound impact on international human rights law and medical ethics.
The Nuremberg Code consists of 10 principles, the first of which being that the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential in any experiment on humans.
Other principles include that the experiment should be for the good of society, that all unnecessary physical and mental suffering or injury should be avoided and no experiment should be conducted if there is good reason to believe it may result in death or a disabling injury.
They also say that the human subject should be free to exit the experiment if they are suffering, and that the scientist in charge must be prepared to end the experiment if they have good reason to believe it may cause injury, disability or death to the subject if it continues.
The Nuremberg Code was created in 1947 in Nuremberg, Germany, following the trial of a group of Nazi doctors accused of conducting inhumane and often deadly experiments on prisoners of concentration camps without their consent. At the conclusion of what’s also referred to as ‘The Doctors Trial’, 16 people were found guilty.
The Nuremberg Code was developed in response to the horrors of this experimentation, with the aim of protecting human subjects in medical research. The Code, and particularly its emphasis on informed consent, has had a profound impact on international human rights law and medical ethics.
The Nuremberg Code consists of 10 principles, the first of which being that the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential in any experiment on humans.
Other principles include that the experiment should be for the good of society, that all unnecessary physical and mental suffering or injury should be avoided and no experiment should be conducted if there is good reason to believe it may result in death or a disabling injury.
They also say that the human subject should be free to exit the experiment if they are suffering, and that the scientist in charge must be prepared to end the experiment if they have good reason to believe it may cause injury, disability or death to the subject if it continues.