뉘른베르그¹⁾ 강령과 인체실험의 윤리

Nowadays human subject researches encompass various kinds of biomedical researches: clinical trials, population studies, epidemiological studies, genetic studies, reproductive studies, stored sample studies, etc. While each category has its own specific ethical issues and corresponding guidelines, universal guidelines of human subject research have been developed at the international level. The Nuremberg Code adopted in 1947 marked a major turning point in the history of research ethics. Although risks related to human subject research has been known since ancient time, the Nuremberg Code initiated international efforts to protect human rights in biomedical researches. For 2500 years, the Hippocratic Oath has stressed the physicians integrity and loyalty to the patient. The Nuremberg Code shifted the main point of medical ethics from physicians attitude to the voluntary informed consent of research participants. As reflected in the Code, the traditional doctor-patient relationship (the healer-patient relation) extended to include the researcher-subject relation in modern times.

The Nuremberg Code came out from the painful chapters of the history of human experimentation during the World War II. At the Nuremberg Trial in 1946-47, twenty three Nazi scientists and doctors were prosecuted for their inhuman human experimentation. While the trial revealed Nazi physicians' cruelty, the judges tried to establish international consensus concerning what is an acceptable experiment on human being throughout the trial. Fifteen defendants were sentenced as guilty of crime against humanity and war crime. The Nuremberg Code was proclaimed as a part of final verdict of the trial.

In this paper I examine in what historical context the Code was shaped; what are lessons of the Nuremberg Trials; and what is the legacy of the Code. Although the Code initiated the international efforts to establish ethic of human subject research, the Nuremberg Code and following Declaration of Helsinki has never guaranteed protection of the human subjects of biomedical researches.