Læknablaðið : fylgirit - 01.09.1977, Síða 25
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ledge, only to the extent that medical research is justified by
its potential diagnostic or therapeutic value for the patient.
III. Non-therapeutic biomedical research involving human subjects
(Non-clinical biomedical research)
1. In the purely scientific application of medical research car-
ried out on a human being, it is the duty of the doctor to remain
the protector of the life and health of that person on whom bio-
medical research is being carried out.
2. The subjects should be volunteers - either healthy persons or
patients for whom the experimental design is not related to the
patient's illness.
3. The investigator or the investigating team should discontinue
the research if in his/her or their judgement it may, if contin-
ued, be harmful to the individual.
4. In research on man, the interest of science and society
should never take precedence over considerations related to the
well-being of the subject.
DECLARATION OF TOKYO
GUIDELINES FOR MEDICAL DOCTORS
Conceming Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatmer.t or Punishment in relation to Detention and
Imprisonment
Statement approved by the Council of the World Medical
Association, March 1975 and adopted as amended by the
Twenty-ninth World Medical Assembly, Tokyo, October 1975.
PREAMBLE
It is the privilege of the medical doctor to practice medicine
in the service of humanity, to preserve and restore bodily and
mental health without distinction as to persons, to comfort and
to ease the suffering of his or her patients. The utmost respect
for human life is to be maintained even under threat, and no use
made of any medical knowledge contrary to the laws of humanity.
DECLARATION
1. The doctor shall not countenance, condone or participate in
the practice of torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman or de-
grading procedures, whatever the offenœ of which the victim of
such procedures is suspected, accused orguilty, ana whatever the vic-
tim's beliefs or motives and in all situations, including armed
conflict and civil strife.