[The research ethics committees: the French example of the Comités de Protection des Personnes]

Succeeding to the CCPPRB as created by the statute of December 20, 1988, the CPP are the ethics committees foreseen by international texts dealing with research involving human beings. They were ruled by the statute of 9 August 9, 2004 and are partly modified by the last statute of March 5, 2012, settling a new classification of research, each category under a different set of rules. To solve difficulties arising from the number of committees (40), a new National Committee for research is created, working closely with the minister. Another purpose of the reform was to include the observational research to extend the area of research with opened access to international level for publications.