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Abstract
The Belmont Report is central to human research ethics. It is not a policy nor regulatory legislation. It addresses more the being of research integrity than its doing. The impact of The Belmont Report is in its significance as a living tradition. This paper will reflect on the implications of Belmont's three principles: Respect for Persons, Beneficence, and Justice. These form the fundamental ethos underlying human subject protections. These three principles must be interpreted anew in each age and each context so that research is shaped by the preservation of human dignity. In this way research itself is shaped, preserved, and protected as a process leading to truly human and humane progress.
Introduction: Belmont as Ethos
History, whether of individuals or cultures, is a never ending process of milestones and markers each building upon or veering away from the experience of each other. Sometimes, these markers and milestones stand out and seem to capture the very essence of a person's life or the soul of a culture. Americans look to the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the Emancipation Proclamation as two exemplar events that have marked the conscience of a nation struggling to evolve from a noble experiment to become an experience. In this light, there are any number of historical markers that vividly bring into high relief the profound significance of human subject protections in the evolving history of research. One of the most significant is The Belmont Report of 1979.
On 12 July 1974, the National Research Act was signed into law and established the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomédical and Behavioral Research. Among other charges, the Commission was directed to identify and articulate the ethical principles that must form the basis of all human subjects protections in research. Over a four year interval, the Commission convened physicians, behavioral and biomedical researchers, academic theologians, ethicists, philosophers, and lawyers to discuss from a wide variety of perspectives the common bases from which could be articulated the fundamental ethical principles for protecting human participants in any form of research. In April 1979, the Commission issued The Belmont Report and in it identified its three principles that are the foundations for the protection of human research subjects:...