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. This commission was created by in US Congress in 1974 and was under the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare (now known as the Dept. of Health and Human Services) until 1978. The commission was formed in the aftermath of the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male scandal.

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The commission was established by title II of the National Research Act to study the ethical principles underlying biomedical and behavioural research on human subjects and to make recommendations to the Secretary, of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, & Welfare and to 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)
• Research Involving Prisoners (1976)
• Research Involving Children (1977)
• Psychosurgery: Report and Recommendations (March 1977)
• Disclosure of Research Information Under the Freedom of Information Act (April 1977)
• Research Involving Those Institutionalized as Mentally Infirm (1978)
• Ethical Guidelines for the Delivery of Health Services by DHEW (1978)
• Appendix to Ethical Guidelines for the Delivery of Health Services by DHEW (1978)
• 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)

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

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.