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Strictly speaking, the sections of the Common Rule are designated “__.100” and so forth, with the blank space filled in by the volume and subpart of the Code of Federal Regulations assigned to each federal agency's or department's human subject regulations. But since the Department of Health and Human Services takes the lead in this field (e.g., it houses the OHRP), its publication of the Common Rule, in volume 42, part 46 of the C.F.R., is the standard means of citing a provision of the rule.Google Scholar

“I believe that the current model is one that is largely confrontational in its foundation. It is a model that is focused primarily on compliance… Testimony of Greg Koski, Ph.D., M.D., before the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, Sept. 12, 2000, Washington, D.C., p. 196, available at <https://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/nbac/transcripts/sept00/9-00day1.pdf> (last visited Aug. 22, 2017).+(last+visited+Aug.+22,+2017).>Google Scholar

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See, e.g., Schaefer, G. O., Emanuel, E. J., and Wertheimer, A., “The Obligation to Participate in Biomedical Research,” Journal of the American Medical Association 302, no. 1 (2009): 67–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Jay Katz opens his pioneering examination of physician-patient communication by describing the belief of physicians since the time of Hippocrates, “‘Good’ patients follow doctor's orders without question.” Katz, J., The Silent World of Doctor and Patient (New York: Free Press, 1984): at 1.Google Scholar

Id., at 16-25 and 165-206.Google Scholar

Richard Nicolls, the first English Governor of the Colony of New York, oversaw the compilation of The Duke of York's Laws, drawn from the statutes of the other English colonies in America, which themselves reflected prevailing English common law on civil and criminal matters. Promulgated at Hempstead, on Long Island, March 1, 1665, the laws contained the following statement regarding punishing (as severely “as the nature of the fault may deserve”) surgeons, midwives, and physicians who depart from professional standards or intervene without their patient's consent:, at 15 of 48 (last visited Aug 28, 2017).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Richard+Nicolls,+the+first+English+Governor+of+the+Colony+of+New+York,+oversaw+the+compilation+of+The+Duke+of+York's+Laws,+drawn+from+the+statutes+of+the+other+English+colonies+in+America,+which+themselves+reflected+prevailing+English+common+law+on+civil+and+criminal+matters.+Promulgated+at+Hempstead,+on+Long+Island,+March+1,+1665,+the+laws+contained+the+following+statement+regarding+punishing+(as+severely+“as+the+nature+of+the+fault+may+deserve”)+surgeons,+midwives,+and+physicians+who+depart+from+professional+standards+or+intervene+without+their+patient's+consent:+[No]+Person+or+Persons…Employed+about+the+Bed+of+Men+women+or+Children+at+any+time+for+preservation+of+Life+or+health+as+Chirurgions,+Midwives,+Physicians+[shall]+presume+to+Exercise+or+put+forth+any+Acte…or+Exercise+any+force+violence+or+Cruelty+upon,+or+to+the+Bodies+of+any+whether+Young+or+old+without+the+advice+and+Counsell+of+the+such+as+are+Skillfull+in+the+same+Art+(If+such+may+be+had,)…and+Consent+of+the+patient+or+patients+if+they+be+Mentis+Compotes…to+the+prejudice+or+hazard+of+the+Life+or+Limb+of+man,+woman,+or+child.+“CHIRURGIONS,+MIDWIVES,+PHYSICIANS”+in+The+Duke+of+York's+Laws,+1665-75,+available+at+,+at+15+of+48+(last+visited+Aug+28,+2017).>Google Scholar

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The solicitude that the law has shown for medical professionals (e.g., the higher standard of evidence required to establish actionable negligence) doubtless reflects the experience of judges and lawyers in their own profession: the occurrence of an unwanted outcome when serious and complex legal problems are being resolved does not mean that the lawyer involved failed to exercise the skill expected of a competent professional. In the practice of law an added twist arises, which is absent in medicine, where a physician's opponent is an illness or injury — namely, that in legal disputes one side wins, the other loses, yet it cannot be the case that every legal action perforce implies that one lawyer has failed to exert the necessary skill or effort on his or her client's behalf.Google Scholar

Some twenty years later, Robert Veatch, an early, vocal proponent of using the doctrine of consent to replace medical paternalism with patient autonomy, concluded “that consent is merely a transitional concept,” which “emerged in the field as a liberal, innovative idea” but whose “time may have passed and newer, more enlightened formulations may be needed,” that would substitute a patient's exercise of active choice among alternatives for the whiff of “acquiescence” that accompanies “consent.” Veatch, R. M., “Abandoning Informed Consent,” Hastings Center Report 25, no. 2 (1995): 5–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Natanson v. Kline, 186 Kan. 393, 350 P.2d 1093, rehearing denied, 187 Kan. 186, 354 P.2d 670 (1960).Google Scholar

See President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research, Making Health Care Decisions, Vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982): at 44–47, quoting I. Berlin, “Two Concepts of Liberty,” in Four Essays on Liberty (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1969): 118-138.Google Scholar

Physicians used new or untried methods “at their peril.” Carpenter v. Blake, 60 Barb. 488 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. 1871), reversed on other ground, 50 N.Y. 696 (1872).Google Scholar

See Hunt v. Bradshaw, 88 S.E. 2d 762 (N.C. 1955) (concurring opinion of J. Bobbitt).Google Scholar

Katz, supra note 10, at 60. Professor Katz concludes that the ambivalence in the new doctrine of informed consent “has all the earmarks of a dream,” recalled as one first awakes, in which impossible facts are joined together. In this case, the surgeons who advised the lawyers writing the amicus brief were — unconsciously rather than deceitfully, Katz believes — trying to reconcile the increased risk that the growing powers of medicine can harm as well as hurt with the reality that it is unlikely that most patients can actually provide “intelligent consent,” as the Salgo opinion states. Id. at 63-65.Google Scholar

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Canterbury v. Spence, supra note 21, at 787. See generally Capron, A. M., “Informed Consent in Catastrophic Disease Research and Treatment,” University of Pennsylvania Law Review 123, no. 2 (1974): 340–438.Google Scholar

See Meisel, A. and Kabnick, L. D., “Informed Consent to Medical Treatment: An Analysis of Recent Legislation,” University of Pittsburgh Law Review 41, no. 3 (1980): 407–564. A few states went further than restoring the medical custom standard and limited the obligation to a bare minimum disclosure of the risk of death or specified major injuries. See, e.g., Louisiana Public Health & Safety Code, Sec. 40: 1299.40 (1975).Google Scholar

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Leo Alexander, an American physician who was one of the expert witnesses at Nuremberg, pointed out that the defendants' criminal attitude toward their inmate-subjects interfered with being successful researchers. During research to find a vaccine for typhus, pre-vaccinated persons and nonvaccinated controls were injected with typhus rickettsia. At some point, the strain being used became avirulent in humans. “Instead of seizing upon this as a possibility to develop a live vaccine,” the experimenters were simply annoyed that the controls weren't dying, discarded the strain, “and continued testing their relatively ineffective dead vaccines against a new virulent strain.” Alexander, L., “Medical Science under Dictatorship,” New England Journal of Medicine 241, no. 2 (1949): 39–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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To buttress his claim of universalisability, Dr. Ivy testified on June 13, 1947, that the three principles he drew from his historical study (voluntary informed consent, well-designed research justified by anticipated results, and scientifically qualified investigators minimizing suffering and injury) could also be found in “a decree of the Minister of Public Welfare of Germany in 1931 on the subject of ‘Regulations for Modern Therapy for the Performance of Scientific Experiments on Human Beings'.” Id. at 9142.Google Scholar

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A further set of ethical standards is in place for the pharmaceutical and medical device approval process, through the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) inspection of the sites that conduct clinical trials, according to the agency's regulations for licensing of new drugs and devices and to the “Good Clinical Practice” standards of the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH).Google Scholar

As a regulatory body, the FDA's human subjects regulations have sharper and more obvious teeth; for example, drug sponsors cannot use the results of research that did not adhere to the regulations in support of their applications for a license for a new drug.Google Scholar

It is important to note that such criticism has stimulated some beneficial change. For example, the revised Rule adds provisions that are apparently aimed at encouraging researchers to draft, and IRBs to demand, consent documents that will improve potential subjects' ability to understand what it means to enroll in a particular study. For example, in §__.116(a)(5)(i), the revised Common Rule states that the consent form must begin with “a concise and focused presentation” of “key information… organized and presented in a way that facilitates comprehension.” It goes on to say that detailed information (from providing all the required elements of consent) must not be merely a “lists of isolated facts,” but should be presented in a way that will facilitate subjects' understanding of “the reasons why one might or might not want to participate” §__.116(a)(5)(ii). Investigators — and perhaps even IRBs — may not feel enthusiastic about pursuing such a consent process, since for many clinical trials some subjects will be less inclined to enroll if they truly understand the likely benefits they will directly experience compared to those expected in an alternative therapeutic course.Google Scholar

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For example, one leading voice for research ethics has recently enthused over the “unprecedented opportunities to answer important clinical research questions…available through the analysis of massive amounts of data (“big” data) in commercial, health care, research, and government databases, in social media and mobile devices, and in growing collections of biologic specimens and clinical and genomic data.” Grady, C., “The Changing Face of Informed Consent,” New England Journal of Medicine 376, no. 9 (2017): 856–859, at 856.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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The possibility is not a mere hypothetical, having been championed for example by Henry Beecher in the report he prepared for Harvard Medical School, when it wanted an alternative to the Nuremberg Code, which the Department of the Army had begun including in its contracts for research with human subjects around 1960. “The inescapable responsibility for determining what investigations may be done on a particular patient must rest with the investigator or physician concerned, bearing in mind that present-day specialization in medicine and complexity of procedures proposed or undertaken are frequenty beyond the grasp of the subjects involved.” Beecher, H. K., “Tentative Statement Outlining the Philosophy and Ethical Principles Governing the Conduct of Research on Human Beings at the Harvard Medical School,” (unpublished manuscript; undated) in Katz, J., Experimentation with Human Beings (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1972): 315, at 316.Google Scholar

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See, e.g., Grande, D., Mitra, N., Shah, A., Wan, F., and Asch, D. A., “The Importance of Purpose: Moving beyond Consent in the Societal Use of Personal Health Information,” Annals of Internal Medicine 161, no. 12 (2014): 855–862.Google Scholar

Yet, as Christine Grady has noted, “In survey after survey… people report that they prefer to be asked and given a choice about research even if there is little risk to them.” Grady, supra note 48, at 857 (citations omitted).Google Scholar

President's Commission, supra note 17, at 108. A smaller majority of physicians hold the same view.Google Scholar

The preamble to the new Common Rule indicates that federal officials have taken notice of the public's cynical view about the purpose informed consent typically serves. In revising §__.116 to underline and beef up several general points about consent (by numbering them, instead of treating such considerations in a single, short introduction and then emphasizing the elements of consent by enumerating them separately), the drafters were sensitive to the complaint that long and complex consent forms serve mostly as “sales documents or means to protect against institutional liability.” Department of Homeland Security et al., supra note 4, at 7212.Google Scholar

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Capron, A. M., “The Real Problem Is Consent for Treatment, Not Consent for Research,” American Journal of Bioethics 13, no. 12 (2013): 27–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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