The Declaration of Helsinki was first adopted in 1964 at the World Medical Association (WMA) General Assembly in Helsinki, Finland. It is a guiding statement of ethical principles for doctors involved in medical research to protect the human research subjects. Several revisions has occurred since.
The Declaration of Helsinki was the first set of international research guidelines that required research participants to provide informed consent.
The Declaration of Helsinki represents a subtle shift to public health from it’s predecessor The Nuremberg Code which leans more to the individual.
While the concern for the individual has predominated over the needs of public health since WWII, in recent years (since 2008) there has been some movement towards doing “the greatest good to the most amount of people”
In the 2000 revision there was concern around the circumstances in which placebo control is ethically acceptable, weighed up against getting meaningful data returned.
Current version from 64th WMA General Assembly, Fortaleza, Brazil, October 2013
Have COVID-19 vaccine roll-out adhered to this Declaration of Informed Consent?