President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research

Last updated

The President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research was a bioethics organization in the United States.

Contents

Purposes

This Congressionally mandated group was formed in November 1978, by Public Law 95-622, [1] succeeding the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. It was created to study bio-ethical issues such as the effects of income and residence on the availability of healthcare, the definition of death, patient consent, human research subjects, and genetic engineering, counseling and testing. [1] The commission met a total of 28 times [2] and ultimately published 11 reports, two of which were made up of three volumes, on these topics and their implications. [3] These reports expanded upon ideas originally established in the 1945 Nuremberg Codes and the Belmont Report. [4] Additionally, a guidebook for Institutional Review Boards was published by the commission in 1981.

History

Jimmy Carter appointed the eleven original members of the commission in July 1979 and the Senate confirmed Morris B. Abram as the chairman of the commission on September 29, 1979. [1] The commissioners were sworn in by Judge David L. Bazelon at the White House on January 1, 1980 and proceeded to hold the first meeting that day. Six additional commissioners were sworn in as replacements were needed. The commission worked independently from January 1980 to March 31, 1983 when its authority expired. The meeting files, correspondences, and unpublished papers from the commission are currently held in the Bioethics Research Library Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. [2] Multiple government formed organizations continued to fulfill the commission's purposes after its expiration, most specifically the Bioethical Medical Advisory Committee which was created in 1988. [5]

Publications

Its publications included:

Eleven Original Members Appointed by Jimmy Carter [1]

Replacement Commissioners and Years Sworn In [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethical issues related to health, including those emerging from advances in biology, medicine, and technologies. It proposes the discussion about moral discernment in society and it is often related to medical policy and practice, but also to broader questions as environment, well-being and public health. Bioethics is concerned with the ethical questions that arise in the relationships among life sciences, biotechnology, medicine, politics, law, theology and philosophy. It includes the study of values relating to primary care, other branches of medicine, ethical education in science, animal, and environmental ethics, and public health.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">President's Council on Bioethics</span>

The President's Council on Bioethics (PCBE) was a group of individuals appointed by United States President George W. Bush to advise his administration on bioethics. Established on November 28, 2001, by Executive Order 13237, the council was directed to "advise the President on bioethical issues that may emerge as a consequence of advances in biomedical science and technology". It succeeded and largely replaced the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, appointed by President Bill Clinton in 1996, which expired in 2001.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hastings Center</span> Non-profit organization in the USA

The Hastings Center is an independent, nonpartisan bioethics research institute and think tank based in Garrison, New York. It was instrumental in establishing the field of bioethics and is among the most prestigious bioethics and health policy institutes in the world.

The Comité Consultatif National d'Ethique is a French governmental advisory council on bioethics issues. It was created by a presidential decree of François Mitterrand in 1983.

The Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an interdisciplinary center serving the entire Johns Hopkins University and Health System. It is dedicated to the study of complex moral and policy issues in biomedical science, health care, and health policy. Established in 1995, the Institute seeks answers to ethical questions by promoting research in bioethics and encouraging moral reflection among a broad range of scholars, professionals, students, and citizens. Contributing to its mission are four divisions of the University: the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. Johns Hopkins was the nation's very first research university

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edmund Pellegrino</span>

Edmund Daniel Pellegrino was an American bioethicist and academic who served as the 11th president of The Catholic University of America (CUA) from 1978 to 1982. For 35 years, Pellegrino was a distinguished professor of medicine and medical ethics and the Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. Pellegrino was an expert both in clinical bioethics, and in the field of medicine and the humanities, specifically, the teaching of humanities in medical school, which he helped pioneer). He was the second layman to hold the position of President of Catholic University.

Albert R. Jonsen was one of the founders of the field of Bioethics. He was Emeritus Professor of Ethics in Medicine at the University of Washington, School of Medicine, where he was Chairman of the Department of Medical History and Ethics from 1987-1999. After retiring from UW, he returned to San Francisco, where he co-founded the Program in Medicine and Human Values at Sutter Health's California Pacific Medical Center in 2003.

National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research was the first public national body to shape bioethics policy in the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Principlism</span>

Principlism is an applied ethics approach to the examination of moral dilemmas that is based upon the application of certain ethical principles. This approach to ethical decision-making has been adopted enthusiastically in many different professional fields, largely because it sidesteps complex debates in moral philosophy at the theoretical level.

Tom Lamar Beauchamp is an American philosopher specializing in the work of David Hume, moral philosophy, bioethics, and animal ethics. He is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Georgetown University, where he was Senior Research Scholar at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.

The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is a UK-based independent charitable body, which examines and reports on bioethical issues raised by new advances in biological and medical research. Established in 1991, the Council is funded by the Nuffield Foundation, the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust. The Council has been described by the media as a 'leading ethics watchdog', which 'never shrinks from the unthinkable'.

Ruth Macklin is an American philosopher and retired professor of bioethics.

Sheldon Krimsky was a professor of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning at Tufts University, and adjunct professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Tufts University School of Medicine. He was a fellow of the Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kennedy Institute of Ethics</span> Academic center at Georgetown University

The Kennedy Institute of Ethics is one of the most prestigious bioethics institutes in the world. Located at Healy Hall, it was established at Georgetown University in 1971 as a bioethics center, think tank and library. Its first director, André Hellegers, said the institution's goal was to "bring expertise to the new and growing ethical problems in medicine today." The Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation granted $1.35 million to the Institute, contributing to the establishment of its Bioethics Research Library and providing for two Chairs. The Institute was soon in need of more financial support, which it received from Georgetown University and by several public, private and governmental grants. The philosopher Tom Beauchamp and the bioethicist Robert Veatch were among the first scholars to join the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. The institute features a top-ranked graduate program in applied ethics.

Stephen Garrard Post has served on the Board of the John Templeton Foundation (2008-2014), which focuses on virtue and public life. He is a researcher, opinion leader, medical school professor, and best-selling author who has taught at the University of Chicago Medical School, Fordham University-Marymount, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine (1988-2008) and Stony Brook University School of Medicine (2008-). He is widely known for his research on the ways in which giving can enhance the health and happiness of the giver, how empathy and compassionate care contribute to patient outcomes, ethical issues in caring for people with dementia, medical professionalism and the virtues, and positive psychology in relation to health and well-being. Post is an elected member of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the New York Academy of Medicine, and the Royal Society of Medicine, London. He was selected nationally as the Public Member of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Composite Committee (2000-2005), and was reappointed for outstanding contributions.

Human subject research legislation in the United States can be traced to the early 20th century. Human subject research in the United States was mostly unregulated until the 20th century, as it was throughout the world, until the establishment of various governmental and professional regulations and codes of ethics. Notable – and in some cases, notorious – human subject experiments performed in the US include the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, human radiation experiments, the Milgram obedience experiment and Stanford prison experiments and Project MKULTRA. With growing public awareness of such experimentation, and the evolution of professional ethical standards, such research became regulated by various legislation, most notably, those that introduced and then empowered the institutional review boards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christoph Rehmann-Sutter</span>

Christoph Rehmann-Sutter is a philosopher and bioethicist. He is holding a professorship for theory and ethics in biosciences at the Institute for History of Medicine and Science Studies at the University of Lübeck in Germany.

David John Doukas, is an American family physician and bioethicist. He holds the James A. Knight Chair of Humanities and Ethics in Medicine, and directs the Program in Medical Ethics and Human Values at Tulane University's School of Medicine. Prof. Doukas is also the Executive Director of the Master of Science in Bioethics and Medical Humanities at Tulane University. Professor Doukas was Founding President of the Academy for Professionalism in Health Care from 2012 to 2019, for which he was awarded the first Presidential Award at the Academy for Professionalism in Health Care Annual Meeting in June 2023, for his efforts as Founder and President of APHC for seven years (2012-2019).

Daniel Sulmasy is an American medical ethicist and former Franciscan friar. He has been Acting Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and on the faculty of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioetics was also named He is the inaugural Andre Hellegers Professor of Biomedical Ethics, with co-appointments in the Departments of Philosophy and Medicine at Georgetown.

Patricia A. King is a professor of law emeritus at Georgetown University Law Center and an adjunct professor in the School of Hygiene and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Her expertise lies at the intersection of law, medicine, ethics, and public policy. In 1979, she became the first African-American woman law professor to receive tenure at Georgetown.

References

  1. "Jimmy Carter: President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research Appointment of the Membership and Nomination of the Chairman. - July 18, 1979." The American Presidency Project. American Presidency Project, n.d. Web. 28 May 2017.
  2. "Guide to the Records in the Bioethics Research Library Kennedy Institute of Ethics ." Georgetown University Archives. Georgetown University, 2 June 1988. Web. 12 May 2017. <https://bioethics.georgetown.edu/archives/Presidents-Commission-for-Study-of-Ethical-Problems-in-Medicine-and-in-Biomedical-and-Behavioral-Research-Original-Archive-Finding-Aid.pdf>.
  3. "Reports of the President's Commission." Go to the Research, Scholarship, Innovation, and Creativity front-page. The University of Mississippi, n.d. Web. 28 May 2017.
  4. Field, Marilyn J. "Introduction." Ethical Conduct of Clinical Research Involving Children. U.S. National Library of Medicine, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 28 May 2017. <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK25549/>.
  5. "U.S. Bioethics Commissions." Bioethics Research Library. Bioethics Research Library, n.d. Web. 28 May 2017.
Specific
  1. 1 2 3 4 "Jimmy Carter: President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research Appointment of the Membership and Nomination of the Chairman". The American Presidency Project. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  2. 1 2 3 "Guide to the Records in the Bioethics Research Library Kennedy Institute of Ethics" (PDF). Georgetown University Archives. Kennedy Institute of Ethics. June 2, 1988. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
  3. "5.4 - Reports of the President's Commission | Research, Scholarship, Innovation, and Creativity". www.research.olemiss.edu. Retrieved 2017-05-28.
  4. Field, Marilyn J.; Behrman, Richard E.; Children, Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Clinical Research Involving (2004). Introduction. National Academies Press (US).
  5. "U.S. Bioethics Commissions". Georgetown Bioethics Research Library. Retrieved 2017-05-29.