World Medical Association

…ethical principles published by the World Medical Association (WMA) to guide the protection of human participants in medical research. The Declaration of Helsinki was adopted in 1964 by the 18th WMA General Assembly, at Helsinki. Although not without its controversies, it has served as the standard in medical research ethics.

…largest such organization is the World Medical Association, which has more than 60 member associations. It was founded in 1947.

The World Medical Association’s (WMA’s) Declaration of Helsinki, which provides a set of ethical guidelines for medical experimentation on humans, traditionally prohibited the use of placebos in trials when effective therapies or interventions already existed. In 2001, however, the WMA revised its guidelines to allow placebo-controlled…