Abstract

The Belmont Report begins with the sentence, “It is important to distinguish between biomedical and behavioral research, on the one hand, and the practice of accepted therapy on the other”. Writing an essay in a journal issue devoted to the 40th anniversary of the Belmont Report offers an opportunity not only to examine critically a theme addressed in this remarkable document—the distinction between research and practice—but also to reflect on the role of this theme as a major dimension of my work as a bioethics scholar. Encompassing only 12 pages of text, the Belmont Report is a seminal and rich examination of basic norms defining the ethics of biomedical research. I have read the...