Belmont Principles

What are the Belmont Principles?

The Belmont Principles are respect for persons, beneficence, and justice: three ethical principles for research involving human participants. The US National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research set them out in the 1979 Belmont Report.

Respect for persons

People should be treated as capable of making their own decisions, with protection for those whose autonomy is diminished. Informed consent involves more than providing a form: the person needs information, an opportunity to understand it, and a voluntary choice.

Beneficence

Researchers should avoid harm and work to maximize possible benefits while minimizing possible harms. This requires examining the study’s risks and benefits, including psychological as well as physical harm.

Justice

The benefits and burdens of research should be distributed fairly. Participant selection needs a defensible connection to the research question. A group should not bear the burden merely because its members are easy to recruit or have less power to refuse.

How the principles apply

Respect for persons informs consent. Beneficence informs risk–benefit assessment. Justice informs participant selection. A study can raise all three questions at once: who is recruited, what they understand, and what risks they bear.

The original Belmont Report explains these applications and recognizes that the principles can conflict. They guide ethical judgment rather than settle every case automatically.