The use of Human Subjects in Biomedical Research: A Problematic Scientific Past Shapes Present Ethical Challenges
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The ethics of human experimentation is a relatively new phenomenon in medicine. The Nuremberg Code and the Helsinki Declaration focused on informed consent in human experimentation. More recently, ethicists have begun to emphasize that, beyond the need for consent, the \"content\" of the experiment also needs to be ethical. The method and process of the experiment must be humanizing and affirming of the subject as moral agent. The religious perspective has provided a comprehensive moral foundation, demanding respect for the subjects\' moral agency and their right to he treated as equally worthy members of the human community, thus ensuring the integrity of the subject as person.