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The Ethics of Involving Prisoners in ResearchThe history of using prisoners to conduct medical research is long and shameful. The abhorrent and unspeakable horrors perpetrated at Auschwitz by Joseph Mengele, a physician and member of the Nazi SS, is but one example. Another occurred much more recently at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Beginning in 1951 and continuing through 1974, Dr. Albert Kligman headed research sponsored by the U.S. Army, the CIA and at least two large private corporations, Dow Chemical Co. and Johnson & Johnson. In exchange for little more than better living conditions, literally thousands of prisoners were subjected to carcinogens and pathogens about which these “human guinea pigs” new little or nothing. Many of these men suffered serious, debilitating health consequences or and perhaps even death.
In 1976, Congress created the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical & Behavioral Research. The Commission submitted recommendations that served as the basis for regulations that were promulgated in 1978 and are still in effect. 45 C.F.R. 46 Subpart C (1978). However, those regulations primarily apply narrowly to DHHS and four other agencies in federally funded research. Research on prisoners on prisoners that was conducted or funded by other agencies or institutions have gone largely unnoticed and unregulated.
In the late 1980’s, serious and life-threatening maladies began to afflict prisoners disproportionately. HIV and AIDS, Hepatitis C, and more recently, MRSA occur in prison populations more frequently than in the community at large.
Realizing that prisoners were excluded from research that might offer the only hope to restore health or prolong the lives of those with terminal conditions, some prisoner advocates and health care professionals urged reconsideration. At the request of the Office of Human Research Protection within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Institute of Medicine convened a group of 16 scholars, among whom were doctors, medical ethicists, and lawyers (including Mr. Hamden). After more than 18 months of study, consultation, and deliberation, the committee issued its report, Ethical Considerations for Research Involving Prisoners. The report may be read on line, and copies can be obtained from the National Academies Press at the National Academies of Science, Institute of Medicine. http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11692
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