What is the Journal s role in setting or enforcing ethical standards of patient care and research?
The Journal provides a forum for publication of important information. When the Journal publishes a manuscript, it gives implicit approval of the scientific and ethical value of the work. The ethical standards are based on the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki, Recommendations Guiding Medical Doctors in Biomedical Research Involving Human Subjects. 4 The Helsinki declaration sets clear requirements, including approval by an independent committee, for experimental studies. It is less clear on new therapeutic measures. Although their use is accepted “if it offers hope of saving life, reestablishing health, or alleviating suffering,” combining research with professional care for the acquisition of new medical knowledge is circumscribed. “The physician can combine medical research with professional care [for] the acquisition of new medical knowledge only to the extent that the . . . research is justified by its potential . . . therapeutic value for the patient” [emphasis
