Abstract

The Belmont Report’s three foundational ethical principles—respect for persons, beneficence, and justice—have shaped regulation, practice, and our collective thinking about research with human beings in the United States for over 40 years. While it has proven remarkably adaptable, Belmont’s framework is a product of a specific time and historical context. Both the research enterprise and society at large have changed in significant ways since its creation. For example, the last four decades have seen a general democratization of knowledge production, increasing skepticism of authority and expertise, and growing demands that institutions of power be more transparent about their activities so they can be better held to account. Within the research enterprise, the emergence of community engaged- and patient-centered research reflects these changes. This chapter examines the application of Belmont’s framework to stakeholder-engaged research, both illuminating its flexibilities and identifying its limitations, in terms of the values, norms, and expectations that are central to stakeholder-engaged research but unaccounted for by Belmont.