Experimentation—An Articulation of a New Myth

With explicit recognition of the need for ethical codes addressing medical experimentation after the specter of Nuremberg, what problem does experimentation present to the individual and the community, and if problems do exist, why do they defy legal control? Before analyzing the ethical interaction of doctor and patient and experimenter and subject, we should first recognize that experimentation as a concept is descriptive of legal and social operations as well. Also, the law does not and cannot yield scientific answers; rather it balances, makes value judgments; the law is, in fact, experimenting when it intercedes encouraging or more often proscribing certain conduct. I start from a value premise then that all experimentation and intervention is permissible given informed consent. This paper then suggests how medical experimentation might be conducted