RT Journal A1 Beecher HK T1 EXperimentation in man JF Journal of the American Medical Association JO Journal of the American Medical Association YR 1959 FD January 31 VO 169 IS 5 SP 461 OP 478 DO 10.1001/jama.1959.73000220003010 UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1959.73000220003010 AB Present AimsĀ  Experimentation in man for scientific purposes is as old as recorded history. The need for constant examination of the procedure is equally ancient. This is required by progress in science and by the advance of ethical and moral concepts.In the two decades just passed, two reasons have emerged which especially point up the need for a new review of the subject. First, there were the outrages of Hitler's Germany. The puzzle is how such things could have occurred in modern society. Although the philosophical problems raised by those gross actions are beyond the area surveyed in this report, they too indicate the need for a long, straight look at our current practices. Second, there is the rather newly recognized fact that some types of basic scientific advance can be made only in the presence of disease. Nature presents us with bolder experiments than we would ever dare