Experimentation With Human Beings: The Authority of the Investigator, Subject, Professions, and State in the Human Experimentation Process

Abstract

This volume, beginning with its author's conviction that "medicine has neglected to address itself to an important educational task," undertakes to explore the ethics of human experimentation in medicine and related fields. The book aims to provide the means for accomplishing the perceived neglected task. The tightly organized 1,100 pages deal with such major ethical issues as informed consent, experimentation on uncomprehending and healthy individuals, the rights of the individual against those of society, the limits of authority of the investigator, and the role of the state in the experimental process, to list but a few of myriad topics considered. Katz presents all these issues by offering verbatim case studies (many as recent as 1971) culled from psychological, sociological, medical, and legal journals, and from transcripts of court cases and congressional investigations, all superbly edited so that both sides of specific issues are expressed clearly and concisely. Interspersed among these