Human Rights at Home and Abroad: Past, Present, and Future

The Nuremberg Code was created in World War II when Nazi soldiers were put on trial for
human experimentation and the destruction of human rights and human ethics. The soldiers tested many
things including: ―limits of human endurance to high altitudes and freezing temperatures. Medically
related experiments included inoculation of prisoners with infectious disease pathogens and tests of new
antibiotics. Various mutilating bone, muscle, and nerve experiments were also performed on non-
consenting prisoner subjects‖ (Michalczyk, 1994, p.184-185). Since the subjects were not consulted
about the experiments, and many were in the concentration camps in Germany and were already forced to
endure many horrible tortures, the Nazi soldier trials are the reason the Nuremberg Code was created.
This code consists of guidelines scientists and doctors should follow when conducting a successful
experiment when humans are the test subjects.
The Nuremberg Trials provided progress in human testing because the world was able to learn
from the Nazi soldier‘s abuses. The ten guidelines were created after the trial to be taken seriously and
effectively for scientists, researchers, and doctors who would be interested in using human test subjects.
The first part of the Code speaks of protecting the test subject from any sort of harm, the Nuremberg Code
states:
The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential. This means that the person
involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to
exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit,
duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient
knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to
make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the
acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to
him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to
be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonable to be expected; and the effects upon his
health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment.
The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual
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