The investigator as volunteer subject

It is particularly within the past three decades that increased attention has been focused on human experimentation, both in regard to the scientific design that ensures the greatest chance of success and to conformity to ethical principles that are most likely to receive public approbation. The story of man's experimentation on man dates back to prehistoric times. In the past two centuries, these investigations have been carried out at an increasing level of sophistication. In this saga, the narratives of the auto-experimenters define a special group of investigators, to many of whom the term "heroic" can be applied. When investigators involve themselves as subjects of their research, a situation of informed consent is often assumed to exist. Discussions concerning voluntarism and ethical propriety have been much less voluminous when the investigators have themselves been subjects that when this is not so. It is within the past half century that physiologists particularly have often been auto-experimenters, and Dr. Earl Wood belongs to the best of this illustrious group.