The ethics of biomedical research on prisoners.

Introduction Over the past several years little has been reported regarding the ethics of biomedical research among prisoners. It appears that, following a spate of reports about egregious transgressions of canons of ethics by clinicians engaged in research in prisons, regulations put in place may have solved the problems. However, the dictum of a Persian Prince who is credited with advising a medical student to ‘experiment freely’ but not on ‘people of high rank or political importance’ [1] must not be forgotten. For centuries prisoners – a population of disadvantaged and vulnerable persons – have been used, often unscrupulously, as subjects of research. Although not related to research, recent scandals on the management of prisoners of war at Abu Grahib [2,3], and the de facto policy of transferring the locus of care of mental patients from hospital and community settings to prisons make it timely to revisit the subject of research among prisoners, lest transgressions develop again.