The Nuremberg Code was established after court proceedings regarding the prosecutions of several German doctors regarding medical experiments and procedures completed on concentration camp prisoners. Due to the unwillingness and not disclaimed permissions from said prisoners the Nuremberg code was established as a result stating that there is a need for voluntary consent from participants and for informed consent to be provided to participants of research studies. As discussed by Annas in 2018, The Code was a product of a war crimes trial, and a summary version of the Code was quickly adopted as an explicit requirement of the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in 1966; it is a norm of customary international law. As important as it is to classify human experimentation without consent as a potential war crime and a crime against humanity, it is in the context of domestic civil law and ethics that Nurembergs consent requirement has been most influential. (42). This event greatly impacted the way we in healthcare inform and verify patient understanding of any and all treatments the patient may undergo. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study involved the study of primarily African American patients with latent syphilis to understand the progression of the disease. The experiment involved the widespread study of the disease and utilized the study of placebo medications and treatments. This experiment continued after the discovery of penicillin as a primary form of treatment for syphilis. Medical providers involved in this experiment proceeded to allow for the continued suffering of several patients which led to the death of several patients involved with the experiment. This event led to severe mistrust issues within the African American community and reparations being paid to those involved with the experiment. This also led to continued advancement on the informed consent standards utilized in medical experiments and studies.
