Bob Baker and Tris Engelhardt have told me over and over again that there is no more important document in bioethics than the Belmont Report, for a whole variety of reasons. There is certainly no question that it prefigures a number of other codes and rules in research in the U.S. and elsewhere. It isn’t exactly a thrilling read, but the Belmont Report is as alive as it can be at the new Belmont Report Archive, put together by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The site includes a video on Belmont and some interesting oral history about research ethics at OHRP, the Office for Human Research Protections, which hosts the archive. Short of inviting Al Jonsen to speak, this site is the ideal way to present the Belmont Report to students.