Chapter 7

RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN PARTICIPANTS

(1) Link to Declaration of Helsinki.

The Declaration of Helsinki was developed by the World Medical Association in 1964. It is a statement of ethical norms for conducting clinical research and experimentation involving human beings. These standards have been of particular importance since the Second World War, when a series of Nazi experiments were conducted on prisoners and resulted in death, disfigurement, and disability. The Helsinki Declaration modified in the earlier Nuremberg Code and has undergone a series of revisions. It has informed the development of documents such as Canada’s Tri-Council Policy Statement.

(2) Link to Tri-Council Policy Statement.

The Tri-Council includes the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC). The statement sets out the principles and standards for maintaining ethical behaviour in research with humans.