The old faith and the new science: the Nuremberg Code and human experimentation ethics in Britain, 1946-73.

This article explores the impact of the Nuremberg Code on post-Second World War research ethics in Britain. Against the background of the Nuremberg Medical Trial, the Code received international endorsement, but how much did its ethical percepts influence actual research? This paper shows that, despite British involvement in the formulation of the Code, the experience of war-time and changing career structures were more influential in shaping the approach of investigators to their subjects. Where medical debates ensued, primarily over controversial research practices at the British Postgraduate Medical School, Hammersmith Hospital, they were set in the context of a much older division between 'bedside' and 'scientific' medicine.