The relevant law that regulates research involving human participants who may not have the capacity and embryos is contained in the Belmont report. This statute talks about the principles of respect for persons, beneficence, and Justice.
Principle of beneficence
Bio-medicine can be defined as the field concerned with the treatment of patients, unlike science that involves research, mechanisms, and causes. In this case, a biomedical practitioner is a person who takes the obligation of treating a patient and, in most cases, is the perfect person who deals with the goodwill of a patient. It is upon the duty of any medical practitioner to carry out tasks that go in line with the patient’s interests. The patient, in this case, is supposed to benefit from the service provided by the medical practitioner because it is their right. It is not supposed to be done on the patient’s body but observations of his symptoms or disease for any medical research. This shows that no experimentation should be done on a patient against his interest; hence, the experiment should be the treatment of the disease while research should be the observation of symptoms or disease. Therefore, it is fundamental to note that for treatment to be initiated after research, it should not be done to a population but not an individual.
It is also fundamental to note that the moral difference between the experimentation of human subjects and the practice of bio-medicine does not depend on how a patient responds to the research or treatment nor the degree of risk exposure. The relevant action here by the physician should be to benefit the patient or another person and the degree to which the physician allows his actions considering the well-being of the patient.
Principle of respect for persons
This principle is mainly concerned with doing well and avoiding harming a patient. It primarily deals with preventing the interference of one’s ability to determine his fate. The interference of someone’s capability to tell his future can be done by forcing a person to deceive him. This is against the law even if no harm occurs to a person because a forced choice is a risk exposure hence an offense of the beneficence act. However, if it is wrong to move a person into taking a risk, it is not an offense to request them.
Therefore, it is essential to request patients into taking risks that a physician thinks will help them rather than forcing them or deceiving them. Moving is consequently termed unethical action, unlike asking, which is ethical in biomedical practice. This means that respect of persons is achieved when consent is given to human subject experimentation hence the moral justification of investigation of human subjects.
Principle of Justice
The principle of justice is concerned with the fair distribution of the benefits and burdens that culminate from research. Suppose those who have contributed to the research about a particular subject in a given community make a significant percentage. In that case, the benefits of the study should be to the entire society. Human experimentation with the proper administration of justice in the league has improved drastically in many countries. This is evident because most children and humans have come forward for the experiment to benefit matters concerning other children or women in society. Therefore, it is clear that the principle of justice in the laws governing the experimentation of human subjects provides a moral justification for an investigation.
In conclusion, experimentation on human subjects and animals can be justified if only the three principles contained in the prime rule that regulates the act. People must be respected and given the liberty to make decisions and not forced to experiment because they deserve self-respect, as the law puts it. It is also crucial for patients to be treated as per their interests. They should be treated as they wish for their benefits as any decision besides that is illegal. Justice should also prevail in the experimentation of human subjects and animals for the everyday use of all animals or human beings. Therefore, human subjects and animals should exist if the given law governing the process is not ignored.