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Report on the National Commission: Good as Gold

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

George J. Annas
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Abstract:

The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research ended its work by substantially endorsing the status quo which places primary reliance on local Institutional Review Boards for subject protection. This was predictable because of the Commission's researcher-dominated composition which permitted it to assume that (1) research is good; (2) experimentation is almost never harmful to subjects, and (3) researcher-dominated IRBs can adequately protect the interests of human subjects. The successor Presidential Commission can learn much by re-examining these premises.

Type
Article
Information
Medicolegal News , Volume 8 , Issue 6 , December 1980 , pp. 4 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 1980

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