The Prussian regulation of 1900: Early ethical standards for human experimentation in Germany

IRB Ethics and Human Research

Volumn 18, Issue 4, 1996, Pages 9-11

  Vollmann, Jochen ^a   Winau, Rolf ^a  

^a FREIE UNIVERSITÄT BERLIN   (Germany)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; BIOMEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH; FREEDOM; GERMANY; GOVERNMENT REGULATION; HISTORY; HOSPITAL; HUMAN; HUMAN EXPERIMENT; INFORMED CONSENT; JURISPRUDENCE; LEGAL APPROACH; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; PERSONNEL; PHYSICIAN; PRACTICE GUIDELINE; PRUSSIAN MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS, EDUCATIONAL AND MEDICAL AFFAIRS; RESEARCH SUBJECT; SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT; SOCIAL CONTROL;

BIOMEDICAL AND BEHAVIORAL RESEARCH; LEGAL APPROACH; PRUSSIAN MINISTRY OF RELIGIOUS, EDUCATIONAL AND MEDICAL AFFAIRS;

FREEDOM; GERMANY; GOVERNMENT REGULATION; GUIDELINES; HISTORY; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HOSPITALS; HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION; HUMANS; INFORMED CONSENT; JURISPRUDENCE; NONTHERAPEUTIC HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION; PERSONAL AUTONOMY; PHYSICIANS; RESEARCH PERSONNEL; RESEARCH SUBJECTS; SCIENTIFIC MISCONDUCT; SOCIAL CONTROL, FORMAL;

EID: 0030177303     PISSN: 01937758     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3564006     Document Type: Article

References (16)

1. Faden, RR, and Beauchamp, TL: A History and Theory of Informed Consent. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
2. Annas, GJ: The changing landscape of human experimentation: Nuremberg, Helsinki and beyond. Health Matrix Journal of Law and Medicine 1992; 2: 119-40.
3. Jones, JH: Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, 2nd ed. New York: Free Press, 1993.
4. Pernick, MS: The patient's rote in medical decisionmaking: A social history of informed consent in medical therapy. In: President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research. Making Health Care Decisions. (Vol. 3.3.) Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982.
5. Katz, J: The Silent World of Doctor and Patient. New York: Free Press, 1984.
6. Tashiro, E: Die Waage der Venus. Venerologische Versuche am Menschen zwischen Fortschritt und Moral. Husum: Matthiesen, 1991.
7. Lederer, SE: Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second Wond War. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
8. An earlier directive of the Prussian Minister of the Interior of 1891 was concerned with the use of tuberculin in prisons only, where tuberculin "must in no case be used against the patient's will." See, Official regulations as to tuberculin in Germany and Italy. JAMA 1891; 16: 492.
9. Original in: Ministerial-Blatt für die gesamte innere Verwaltung in den Königlich Preußischen Staaten 52(2): 27 (28 Feb 1891). The Prussian regulation refers to nontherapeutic research only ("medical interventions other than diagnostic, healing, and immunization purposes"). However, the distinction between "therapeutic" and "nontherapeutic" research is not convincing and was repudiated by the (U.S.) National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research in 1978.
10. Elkeles, B: Medizinische Menschenversuche gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts und der Fall Neisser. Rechtfertigung und Kritik einer wissenschaftlichen Methode. Medizinhistorisches Journal 1965; 20: 135-48.
11. Winau, R: Vom kasuistischen Behandlungsversuch zum kontrollierten klinischen Versuch. In: Helmchen, H, and Winau, R (eds). Versuche mit Menschenö. Berlin: de Gruyter, 1986.
12. Moll, A: Ärztliche Ethik. Stuttgart: Enke, 1902.
13. Schultz, JH: Albert Molls Ärztliche Ethik. Zürich: Juris, 1986.
14. Luther, E, and Thaler, B: Das hippokratische Ethos. Untersuchungen zu Ethos und Praxis in der deutschen Ärzteschaft. Halle: Wissenschaftliche Beiträge der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 1967.
15. Sass, HM: Reichsrundschreíben 1931: Pre-Nuremberg German regulations concerning new therapy and human experimentation. Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 1983; 8: 99-111.
16. Levine, RJ: Ethics and Regulation of Clinical Research, 2nd ed. Baltimore: Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1986.