Final answer:
The Nuremburg Code focused heavily on distinguishing therapeutic from nontherapeutic research, laying the foundation for ethical guidelines in clinical trials and forming the basis for the establishment of Institutional Review Boards.
Step-by-step explanation:
Ethical Differentiation in Therapeutic and Nontherapeutic Research
The ethical code or regulation that had a major focus on differentiating therapeutic research from nontherapeutic research is the Nuremburg Code. This set of guidelines was established in response to the unethical medical experiments conducted during World War II. The Nuremburg Code laid down the foundation for modern ethical practices in clinical trials, emphasizing the necessity for voluntary consent and distinguishing between therapies that may benefit the patient and those that are purely experimental, with no therapeutic value to the individual.
Furthermore, the implementation of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) ensures that clinical trials adhere to ethical standards, where members review and approve study protocols to protect the rights and welfare of human subjects. Clinical trials must also follow the ethical principles of autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice to ensure the fair treatment and protection of participants. Historical incidents such as the Tuskegee syphilis study accelerated the establishment of ethical guidelines by revealing the consequences of unethical behavior in clinical research.