PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - G Helgesson
AU  - S Eriksson
TI  - Against the principle that the individual shall have priority over science
AID  - 10.1136/jme.2006.019190
DP  - 2008 Jan 01
TA  - Journal of Medical Ethics
PG  - 54--56
VI  - 34
IP  - 1
4099  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/34/1/54.short
4100  - http://jme.bmj.com/content/34/1/54.full
SO  - J Med Ethics2008 Jan 01; 34
AB  - This paper highlights a feature common to many ethical guidelines—namely, the idea that the interests of the individual shall always prevail over the interests of science and society. The paper presents how some major ethical guidelines treat the balancing of research interests against those of research subjects and spells out the difficulties in interpreting the principle of the primacy of the individual in a way that can be action-guiding. It suggests various alternative interpretations of the primacy of the individual and argues that they do not hold. Finally, the implications of this analysis for ethical guidelines are discussed.