RT Journal
A1 Bean WB
T1 EXperimentation in man.
JF A.M.A. Archives of Internal Medicine
JO A.M.A. Archives of Internal Medicine
YR 1959
FD November 1
VO 104
IS 5
SP 840
OP 840
DO 10.1001/archinte.1959.00270110160023
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archinte.1959.00270110160023
AB I remember hearing no self-conscious, or even casual, discussion of the ethics of human experimentation until after World War II. To this topic I addressed myself in the early 1950's when I felt a growing concern for the morals and ethics in human clinical experimentation. This resulted more from the revulsions produced by the disclosures of human experiments by Nazi physicians than from growing clinical maturity. I was one of the first to discuss this problem in detail, in my presidential address before the Central Society for Clinical Research, in the fall of 1951. Since that time, there has been no lack of discussion. A number of thoughtful essays have been published. Essentially, Beecher's idea was to gather together information, mostly published during the past decade, bearing on the problem of experimental work in human beings, to analyze it, and to discuss it. He has thrown much light on the