Human Infection Challenge Experiments: Then and Now

Ethics Hum Res. 2021 May;43(3):42-44. doi: 10.1002/eahr.500088. Epub 2021 Mar 15.

Abstract

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, ethicists, researchers, and journalists have recommended studies that deliberately infect healthy volunteers with the coronavirus as a scientific means of expediting vaccine development. In this essay, we trace the history of infection challenge experiments and reflect on the Nuremberg Code of 1947, issued in response to brutal human experiments conducted by Nazi investigators in concentration camps. We argue that the Code continues to offer valuable guidance for assessing the ethics of this controversial form of research, with respect particularly to the acceptable limits to research risks and the social value of research necessary to justify exposing human participants to these risks.

Keywords: Nuremberg Code; human research ethics; human subjects research; independent review; infection challenge experiments; research risks; social value.

Publication types

  • Historical Article

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19 / therapy*
  • Clinical Trials as Topic / ethics
  • History, 20th Century
  • History, 21st Century
  • Human Experimentation / ethics*
  • Human Experimentation / history
  • Humans
  • National Socialism / history
  • SARS-CoV-2*