Beecher, Henry and Research Abuse

In 1966, Henry Beecher, a distinguished Harvard physician and faculty member, wrote about the extent to which human subjects were unethically used in research, usually without their knowledge or without knowledge of the harm they risked. He suggested that an ethical approach to human experimentation should include: (1) obtaining informed consent from the participant; (2) providing an intelligent, informed, conscientious, compassionate and responsible investigator; (3) and that the benefits gained from the research be commensurate with the risk. [Beecher, HK, "Ethics and Clinical Research," New England Journal of Medicine 274 (1966): 1354-60.]

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