ABSTRACT
The issue of medical research was brought into the public spotlight by the reports on Bristol Royal Infirmary and Alder Hey Children’s Hospital which revealed that body parts had been taken from dead children without consent, for the purposes of research. Although this may have turned many people against research, the importance of medical research needs to be reemphasised. Medical progress in the fight against major diseases like cancer will be hampered without research involving human subjects. Medical research raises many important issues, such as the consent of the research subject, the impact of the duty of confidence and what redress the research subject may have if they suffer harm as a result of taking part in the research.
