How does the law protect vulnerable populations from biomedical research exploitation?

In California, as well as across the United States, there are laws and regulations in place to protect vulnerable populations from biomedical research exploitation. Regulations such as the Common Rule and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) have been put in place to protect vulnerable individuals, including those with disabilities, mental illness, and the elderly, who are often the subjects of biomedical research. These regulations have specified guidelines that researchers must follow to ensure that the rights of vulnerable populations are respected and protected. In order to protect vulnerable populations from exploitation, all biomedical research must adhere to ethical principles such as informed consent and beneficence. Informed consent means that the subject of the research must be fully informed, in a language that they can understand, about the study and any potential risks to their health or safety. Beneficence requires that any potential risks of research to the subject must be outweighed by potential benefit to the subject or to the public. In addition to the laws and regulations that protect vulnerable populations from exploitation, biomedical researchers must also adhere to institutional policies and guidelines. These policies and guidelines usually require researchers to go through a series of steps, such as getting approval from an ethics committee and conducting risk assessments, to ensure that the rights and safety of vulnerable populations are respected. Biomedical law plays a key role in protecting vulnerable populations from exploitation during biomedical research. By requiring researchers to adhere to regulations, ethical principles, and institutional policies, the law helps ensure that the rights and safety of vulnerable participants are respected and not abused.

How does the law protect vulnerable populations from biomedical research exploitation?

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