National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research

National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research was the first public national body to shape bioethics policy in the United States.

Formed in the aftermath of the Tuskegee Experiment scandal, the Commission was created in 1974 as Title II of the National Research Act. It was part of the United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (DHEW) until 1978. The Commission was tasked with studying the ethical principles underlying biomedical and behavioral research on human subjects and to make recommendations to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and Congress for the protection of Human subjects. The commission produced their Reports and Recommendations on the following areas of research:

• Research on the Fetus (1975) [1]
• Research Involving Prisoners (1976) [2]
• Research Involving Children (1977) [3]
• Psychosurgery Report and Recommendations (March 1977) [4]
• Disclosure of Research Information Under the Freedom of Information Act (April 1977) [5]
• Research Involving Those Institutionalized as Mentally Infirm (1978)
• Ethical Guidelines for the Delivery of Health Services by DHEW (1978) [6]
• Appendix to Ethical Guidelines for the Delivery of Health Services by DHEW (1978) [7]
• Institutional Review Boards (1978)
• Implications of Advances in Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1978)
• The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (1979) [8]

These reports contained their recommendations, the underlying deliberations and conclusions, a dissenting statement and additional statement by commission members and summaries of materials presented to the Commission. An appendix was also included which contained complete text reports and papers prepared for the commission on the ethical, legal and medical aspects of the different research areas examined and other material reviewed by the commission in its deliberations.

The Commission was succeeded by the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research.

See also

• Human experimentation in the United States
• Biomedical Ethical Advisory Committee
• Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments
• National Bioethics Advisory Commission
• President’s Council on Bioethics

References

• Reports and Recommendations on Research on the Fetus, page 6 Preface accessed via Bioethics.gov and listed above
• National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research - A Guide to the Collection in the National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature, Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

External links

• Information about former Bioethics commissions