Final answer:
The Nuremberg Code was established to set ethical standards for human experimentation in response to Nazi war crimes exposed during the Nuremberg Trials. These principles were necessary to prevent future abuses and ensure participant consent and safety in clinical research.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Nuremberg Code was created with the purpose of establishing a set of principles for ethical human experimentation following the egregious human rights violations that occurred during World War II, perpetrated by Nazi doctors and scientists.
These codes were a direct response to the inhuman and deadly experiments carried out on prisoners of war, and as such, they marked the start of formalized ethical standards for clinical research to ensure the protection of participant welfare and consent.
The events leading to the development of the Nuremberg Code were predominantly the atrocities committed by the Nazi regime, which were later exposed during the Nuremberg Trials.
These trials prosecuted key Nazi leaders for crimes against peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, which encompassed the inhumane medical experiments conducted on concentration camp inmates without their consent. The trials took place between 1945 and 1946, culminating in the conviction of nineteen defendants and the establishment of the code.
In addition to the creation of the Nuremberg Code, the trials also significantly contributed to the progress of international law and human rights legislation, including the formation of concepts like genocide and legal mechanisms to prosecute such crimes.
The trials and subsequent codes also laid the foundation for building systems like institutional review boards (IRBs) to ensure ongoing ethical oversight in medical research.