Code of medical ethics

The Declaration of Geneva of the World Medical Association binds the physician with the words the health of my patient will be my first consideration, and the International Code of Medical Ethics declares that medical progress is based on research, which ultimately must rest in part on experimentation involving human subjects. In medical research on human subjects, considerations related to the well being of the human subject should take precedence over the interests of science and society. ... 

The American Medical Association s (AMA) General Statement on Informed Consent, Code of Medical Ethics ... 

The Declaration of Geneva of the World Medical Association binds the physician with the words, The health of my patient will be my first consideration, and the International Code of Medical Ethics declares that. 

The WMA went on to adopt an International Code of Medical Ethics (1949). This was an attempt to develop international standards of medical ethics and sought to summarize the most important principles. It did not specifically address clinical research ethics. That topic was brought to the attention of the WMA Medical Ethics Committee in 1953. After several years of discnssion and research a draft declaration was finally tabled in 1961. It was adopted at the 18th WMA General Assembly, held in Helsinki in 1964. The main points in the declaration are ... 

Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs. Code of Medical Ethics. 1996-1997 Edition. American Medical Association, Chicago, 1997. 

School of Law. Code of Medical Ethics, Annotated Current Opinions. Chicago, IL AMA. 1994. 

It should be apparent from this discussion that Soviet principles of medical ethics are an integral part of the collectivist ethic of Communism, just as the Hippocratic principles are of the individualist ethic of the Free West. Each of these moral codes reflects a different solution of the perennial problem of the conflict between the individual and society. Each prescribes a different code of conduct for the physician, especially in those cases where the interests of the citizen and of the state conflict. Accordingly, in totalitarian countries, the physician is often compelled to act as the patient s adversary whereas in free countries, he need almost never do so. ... 

In addition to the Nuremberg Code and Declaration of Helsinki, The International Ethical Guidelines for Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects was issued in 1982 and revised in 1993 by the Council for the International Organization of Medical Sciences (CIOMS). Those guidelines define national policies for biomedical research, apply ethical standards to the circumstances often present in research in economically developing nations, and define mechanisms for ethical review of human subjects research. 

An essential element of any medical program is informed patient consent prior to the performance of any test or procedure. Although informed consent is not specifically mentioned in the ACOEM components of occupational and environmental health programs, it is inherent in the ethical practice of medicine. The ACOEM Code of Ethical Conduct (adopted October 25,1993) states that physicians should relate honestly and ethically in all professional relationships. Also, the Association of Occupational and Environmental Clinics has issued guidance relative to patient consent, confidentiality of medical records, and communication of the results of tests and procedures (AOEC, 1987). 

Out of the Nuremberg trials in 1947 came the Nuremberg Code, the first code to deal specifically with human experimentation. It created ethical guidelines for the conduct of medical research throughout the world. Although many researchers had customarily obtained consent from volunteers in the past, it was the Nuremberg Code that first established the practice formally. The code deals with self-experimentation in Article 5, which states No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects. ... 

Code of Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans, Medical Research Council of Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, 1998. http //www. nserc.ca/programs/ethics/english/policy.htm. 

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