About AHRP

Mission Statement

The Alliance for Human Research Protection (AHRP) is a national network of lay people and professionals dedicated to advancing responsible and ethical medical research practices, to ensure that the human rights, dignity and welfare of human subjects are protected, and to minimize the risks associated with such endeavors.

Board of Directors

The Problem
Over the past decade, the explosion of biomedical research has not been accompanied by an effective system of oversight or enforcement to protect those who volunteer. A body of well-documented evidence shows that in numerous instances the rights of human subjects have been violated. Unsuspecting research volunteers have sometimes suffered grievous injuries and even preventable death.

The causes are clear:

Research is increasingly driven by commercial concerns.
Conflicts of Interest are ubiquitous.
Disclosure of risks may be incomplete.
Regulatory safeguards have been violated.
Lax oversight by Institutional Review Boards has failed to prevent ethical violations even at major research institutions
(e.g., University of Rochester, University of Pennsylvania, Duke University, University of Oklahoma, Johns Hopkins University, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, Harvard University, and the National Institutes of Health).

This year, more than 15 million Americans will be recruited into clinical trials.

The AHRP mission is to stand up - and speak out - for the human rights of research subjects of human experiments, especially those who are vulnerable and /or susceptible to manipulation and exploitation. Those who are incapable of exercising their right to informed consent are in greatest need of protection from research abuse

children (some as young as preschool age),
elderly residents of nursing homes, and others with impaired reasoning capacity, and
people suffering from a disabling mental illness.

AHRP is the best-known, most visible, proactive citizens' watchdog organization bringing to public attention - through our daily Infomails - issues affecting the safety of people in clinical trials.

The AHRP's Unique Contribution:
We provide a public awareness forum through education, media exposure, and appeals to conscience and social justice, by,

Spearheading an educational campaign for informed consent to empower ordinary citizens with information they can use to better protect themselves and their children from undue risks of harm. Join our Campaign for Informed Consent.
Providing prospective research subjects with information and a questionnaire designed to inform them of their rights and responsibilities, thereby enhancing the process of informed consent.
Sending alerts to professional groups, the media, and political leaders about violations of ethical standards in medical research.
Presenting the general public with timely, relevant information in a sustained educational effort.
Calling for reforms to improve clinical research designs and oversight.
Developing a web-based library and clearinghouse of resource materials for the use of both clinical investigators performing research on human subjects and the potential subjects themselves.

Insofar as nearly all of the AHRP's work is performed by unpaid volunteers, who are donating both time and other resources to the organization, we offer a unique point of view untarnished by conflicts of interest: none of us has a direct financial interest in any medical research enterprise.

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The Alliance for Human Research Protection is a nonprofit, tax-exempt educational organization under Section 501 C-3 of the Internal Revenue Code.