Guinea Pigs, Heroes & Desperate Patients: The History & Ethics of Human Research

The objective of this course is to increase participants’ awareness andunderstanding of ethical issues that arise in the conduct of research onhuman subjects. The course will explore the history and future of ethicaland policy challenges using a multi-disciplinary approach. Leadingscholars in the ethics of human subject research will serve as course faculty. This course will introduce participants to the history that groundspolicies and debates regarding the use of humans in research. It will continuewith discussion of how current international and US policiesgoverning research are applied, how ethical norms and concepts have evolved,and how, in some cases, changes in research have outpaced changes in policy,leading to an often complicated mismatch between the two.

The lead instructor is Jeffrey Kahn, who is the Robert HenryLevi and Ryda Hecht Levi Professor of Bioethics and Public Policy at theJohns Hopkins University Berman Institute of Bioethics.  He will bejoined by colleagues who are all among the leading scholars in aspectsof the ethical and policy issues related to research on human subjects,including Profs. Ruth Faden (history and theory of informed consent), NancyKass (public health research, research in international settings), JeremySugarman (empirical approaches to research ethics, US research policy),Debra Mathews (US and international science and research policy), GailGeller (participants' perspectives on research participation), JosephAli (law and research oversight in US and international settings), andDan O'Connor (medical history, ethics and social media-based research).