Final answer:
The shared standards and regulations in the U.S. for human subjects research are known as the Common Rule, which include strict guidelines for ethical conduct and require IRB approval and informed consent. For animal research, the AWA and PHS Policy provide regulations to ensure humane treatment, with oversight by IACUCs.
Step-by-step explanation:
In the USA, standards and regulations covering human subjects research are shared by several federal agencies. These shared standards are known as the Common Rule, which outlines the basic ethical principles in the conduct of human subjects research. It was codified in response to historical ethical breaches in research, like the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The Common Rule requires that institutions receiving federal funding for research on human subjects maintain an Institutional Review Board (IRB), which reviews all research proposals to ensure they meet ethical standards and the safety of participants is protected. Moreover, informed consent from participants is a crucial component of these standards, necessitating that researchers provide clear explanations of the risks and acquire written consent.
Regarding animal research, the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and the Public Health Service Policy (PHS Policy) govern the ethical treatment of animals in research. Institutions conducting such research must have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) that reviews all proposed animal research experiments, emphasizing minimization of pain and discomfort for the animals involved.