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CHAPTER 3: Ethical Issues in the Conduct of Psychological Research 61FIGURE 3.2Following World War II, the Nuremberg War Crimes Court charged German doctors with crimesagainst humanity, which included performing medical experiments on human beings withouttheir consent. The Court’s verdict in these cases led to the development of the Nuremberg Code,which set rules for permissible experimentation with human beings.and safeguard participants’ rights. Federal regulations impose very specificrequirements on the membership and duties of IRBs (see Federal Register,June 23, 2005). For example, an IRB must be composed of at least five memberswith varying backgrounds and fields of expertise. Both scientists and nonscientistsmust be represented, and there must be at least one IRB member whois not affiliated with the institution. Responsible members of the community,such as members of the clergy, lawyers, and nurses, are often asked to serve onthese committees.The IRB has the authority to approve, disapprove, or require modificationsof the research plan prior to its approval of the research. The IRB also has theethical responsibility to make sure its review of research proposals is fair byconsidering the perspectives of the institution, the researcher, and the researchparticipants (Chastain & Landrum, 1999).In 1985 the U.S. Department of Agriculture, as well as the U.S. Public HealthService, formulated new guidelines for the care of laboratory animals (Holden,1987). As a result, institutions doing research with animal subjects are nowrequired to have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).These committees must include, minimally, a scientist, a veterinarian, and atleast one person not affiliated with the institution. Review of animal researchby IACUCs extends to more than simply overseeing the research procedures.Federal regulations governing the conduct of animal research extend to specificationsof animal living quarters and the proper training of personnel whowork directly with the animals (Holden, 1987).Nearly every college and university require that all research conducted at theinstitution be reviewed prior to data collection by an independent committee.