[The Helsinki Declaration--a misleading Norwegian translation?]

The Declaration of Helsinki (1964, revised 1983) is an important tool for the committees on research ethics in Norway and other countries. The author is appointed member of the Committee on Research Ethics in health region II. He questions the adequacy of the official Norwegian translation of the Declaration of Helsinki and shows how it presents the norms of the document as rules rather than guidelines. This is unfortunate for how the committees' understand their own deliberations and also for what others expect of the committees. The translation should therefore be revised.