The History and Role of Institutional Review Boards

Abstract

“Act in such a way that you treat humanity, whether in your own person or in the person of any other, always at the same time as an end and never merely as a means to an end” [1]. Immanuel Kant’s second maxim defines the tension that drives and bedevils IRBs. Human-subjects research uses humans as subjects, as a means to an end. The imperative that it is never merely as a means, but always also as an end in themselves, makes IRBs necessary.