Review of the Nuremberg Code

The Nuremberg Code isn’t  officially accepted as law by any nation or as official ethics guidelines by most associations.  Many Western world governments initially dismissed the Nuremberg Code as a code for barbarians, but unnecessary for ordinary governments or persons

In fact, the Code's reference to Hippocratic oath/duty establishes  principles of medical ethics which are still significant modern world.   For example, when first released, the code was degraded to individual patients and the need to provide detailed information and privacy  was not favored by the American Medical Assoc. 

Additionally, the final judgment was not specific to whether the Code should be applied to cases such as political prisoners , convicted felons, and healthy volunteers. The lack of clarity, the brutality of the unethical medical experiments, and the uncompromising language of the Code created an image that it was designed for singularly egregious transgressions (code authors were thinking of Auschwitz’s atrocities)

However, the Code is considered by some to be the most important document in the history of clinical research ethics, which had a massive influence on global human rights.

 In America, the Code and the related Declaration of Helsinki form the basis for the Code of Federal Regulations Title 45 Part 46, which are the regulations issued by the United States Department of Health and Human Services for the ethical treatment of human subjects, and are used in Institutional Review Boards (IRBs). In 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights was adopted by the United Nations, and supposed to be in force by 23 March 1976. In addition, Article seven prohibits experiments conducted without the "free consent to medical or scientific experimentation" of the subject. The Covenant has 173 states parties. 

In his 2014 review, Gaw ( I’m only leaving this because that’s my maiden name) observed that the Code "not only 

 altered some 

 legal landscape, but also became the prototype for all future codes of ethical practice across the globe.” 

The concept informed consent served as the basis for  proposed by WHO (ugh liberal-escqe) Other reviews discussed Biomedical experimentation on human subject   published by then in 2017: "Medical Ethics in the 70 Years after the Nuremberg Code, 1947 to the Present". President and Rector Markus Muller wrote in his introduction that the Code "constitutes one of the most important milestones in the history of medicine, providing for the first time a proper framework for research on human subjects. Sadly, this milestone was not a voluntary, precautionary measure resulting from enlightened humanity, it only came into existence in the aftermath of Nazi atrocities before and during WWII.  Following  code conception, the Nuremberg Code had multiple legal regards; eventually becoming a cornerstone of clinical research and bioethics measures and guidelines. 

Authors of the Nuremberg code are 2 American physicians; Dr. Leo Alexander and Andrew Ivy, a German physicist and medical historian.   Werner Liebrand and by Ray R. Greek.   

References:

Wikipedia 

New England journal of medicine.