Source: http://www.circare.org/lex/statelegis1.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 18:16:15+00:00

Document:
Section 2440. Policy and purpose.
2443. Conduct of human research.
2444. Human research review committees.
S 2440. Policy and purpose.
The use of human subjects in medical research projects has brought about many beneficial scientific advances resulting in the increased health and well-being of the human race. Safeguarding the rights and welfare of individual human subjects in the conduct of these human research projects is a matter of vital state concern. Every human being has the right to be protected against the possible conduct of medical or psychological research upon his body without his voluntary informed consent. Human research may effect dangerous and unanticipated results causing irreversible damage to the human subject. Accordingly, it shall be the policy of this state to protect its people against the unnecessary and improper risk of pain, suffering or injury resulting from human research conducted without their knowledge or consent.
1. Human subject shall mean any individual who may be exposed to the possibility of injury, including physical, psychological or social injury, as a consequence of participation as a subject in any research, development, or related activity which departs from the application of those established and accepted methods necessary to meet his needs or which increases the ordinary risk of daily life including the recognized risks inherent in a chosen occupation or field of service.
2. Human research means any medical experiments, research, or scientific or psychological investigation, which utilizes human subjects and which involves physical or psychological intervention by the researcher upon the body of the subject and which is not required for the purposes of obtaining information for the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of disease or the assessment of medical condition for the direct benefit of the subject. Human research shall not, however, be construed to mean the conduct of biological studies exclusively utilizing tissue or fluids after their removal or withdrawal from a human subject in the course of standard medical practice, or to include epidemiological investigations.
3. Fluid means a normal body excretion or any fluid formed by normal or pathological body processes obtained during diagnostic or therapeutic procedures conducted for the benefit of the human subject.
4. Tissue means part or all of any organ of a human subject removed during a diagnostic or therapeutic procedure conducted for the benefit of the human subject.
(f) an instruction that the individual is free to withdraw his consent and to discontinue participation in the human research at any time without prejudice to him.
6. Researcher means any person licensed under title VIII of the education law to perform diagnosis, treatment, medical services, prescription or therapeutic exercises with regard to or upon human beings, or any other person deemed appropriately competent and qualified by a human research review committee as provided by section twenty-four hundred forty-four of this chapter.
No human research may be conducted in this state in the absence of the voluntary informed consent subscribed to in writing by the human subject. If the human subject be a minor, such consent shall be subscribed to in writing by the minor`s parent or legal guardian. If the human subject be otherwise legally unable to render consent, such consent shall be subscribed to in writing by such other person as may be legally empowered to act on behalf of the human subject. No such voluntary informed consent shall include any language through which the human subject waives, or appears to waive, any of his legal rights, including any release of any individual, institution or agency, or any agents thereof, from liability for negligence.
S 2443. Conduct of human research.
No one except a researcher shall conduct human research in this state.
S 2444. Human research review committees.
1. Each public or private institution or agency which conducts, or which proposes to conduct or authorize, human research, shall establish a human research review committee. Such committee shall be composed of not less than five persons, approved by the commissioner, who have such varied backgrounds as to assure the competent, complete and professional review of human research activities conducted or proposed to be conducted or authorized by the institution or agency. No member of a committee shall be involved in either the initial or continuing review of an activity in which he has a conflicting interest, except to provide information required by the committee. No committee shall consist entirely of persons who are officers, employees, or agents of, or who are otherwise associated with the institution or agency, apart from their membership on the committee, and no committee shall consist entirely of members of a single professional group.
(5) that the persons proposed to conduct the particular medical research are appropriately competent and qualified.
The committee shall periodically examine each existing human research project with regard to the proper application of the approved principles and policies which the institution or agency has promulgated. The committee shall report any violation to the commissioner. In addition to the voluntary informed consent of the proposed human subject as required by section twenty-four hundred forty-two of this chapter, the consent of the committee and the commissioner shall be required with relation to the conduct of human research involving minors, incompetent persons, mentally disabled persons and prisoners.
3. Each person engaged in the conduct of human research or proposing to conduct human research shall affiliate himself with an institution or agency having a human research review committee, and such human research as he conducts or proposes to conduct shall be subject to review by such committee in the manner set forth in this section.
The provisions of this article shall not apply to the conduct of human research which is subject to, and which is in compliance with, policies and regulations promulgated by any agency of the federal government for the protection of human subjects.
S 2446. Rules and regulations.
The commissioner shall have the power to promulgate such rules and regulations as shall be necessary and proper to effectuate the purposes of this article.
Human research means any systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, utilizing human subjects, that is designed to develop or contribute to generalized knowledge. Human research shall not be deemed to include research exempt from federal research regulation pursuant to 45 C.F.R. § 46.101(b).
5. An offer to answer and answers to any inquiries by the person concerning the procedures and protocols.
Institution or agency means any facility, program, or organization owned or operated by the Commonwealth, by any political subdivision, or by any person, firm, corporation, association, or other legal entity.
Legally authorized representative means, in the following specified order of priority, (i) the parent or parents having custody of a prospective subject who is a minor, (ii) the agent appointed under an advance directive, as defined in § 54.1-2982, executed by the prospective subject, provided the advance directive authorizes the agent to make decisions regarding the prospective subject's participation in human research, (iii) the legal guardian of a prospective subject, (iv) the spouse of the prospective subject, except where a suit for divorce has been filed and the divorce decree is not yet final, (v) an adult child of the prospective subject, (vi) a parent of the prospective subject when the subject is an adult, (vii) an adult brother or sister of the prospective subject or (viii) any person or judicial or other body authorized by law or regulation to consent on behalf of a prospective subject to such subject's participation in the particular human research. For the purposes of this chapter, any person authorized by law or regulation to consent on behalf of a prospective subject to such subject's participation in the particular human research shall include an attorney in fact appointed under a durable power of attorney, to the extent the power grants the authority to make such a decision. The attorney in fact shall not be employed by the person, institution, or agency conducting the human research. No official or employee of the institution or agency conducting or authorizing the research shall be qualified to act as a legally authorized representative.
Minimal risk means that the risks of harm anticipated in the proposed research are not greater, considering probability and magnitude, than those ordinarily encountered in daily life or during the performance of routine physical or psychological examinations or tests.
A. In order to conduct human research in this Commonwealth, informed consent must be obtained if the person who is to be the human subject is as follows: (i) capable of making an informed decision, then it shall be subscribed to in writing by the person and witnessed; (ii) incapable of making an informed decision, as defined in § 54.1-2982, at the time consent is required, then it shall be subscribed to in writing by the person's legally authorized representative and witnessed; or (iii) a minor otherwise capable of rendering informed consent, then it shall be subscribed to in writing by both the minor and his legally authorized representative. The giving of consent by a legally authorized representative shall be subject to the provisions of subsection B of this section. If two or more persons who qualify as legally authorized representatives and have equal decision-making priority under this chapter inform the principal investigator or attending physician that they disagree as to participation of the prospective subject in human research, the subject shall not be enrolled in the human research that is the subject of the consent. No informed consent form shall include any language through which the person who is to be the human subject waives or appears to waive any of his legal rights, including any release of any individual, institution, or agency or any agents thereof from liability for negligence.
Notwithstanding consent by a legally authorized representative, no person shall be forced to participate in any human research if the investigator conducting the human research knows that participation in the research is protested by the prospective subject. In the case of persons suffering from organic brain diseases causing progressive deterioration of cognition for which there is no known cure or medically accepted treatment, the implementation of experimental courses of therapeutic treatment to which a legally authorized representative has given informed consent shall not constitute the use of force.
B. A legally authorized representative may not consent to nontherapeutic research unless it is determined by the human research committee that such nontherapeutic research will present no more than a minor increase over minimal risk to the human subject. A legally authorized representative may not consent to participation in human research on behalf of a prospective subject if the legally authorized representative knows, or upon reasonable inquiry ought to know, that any aspect of the human research protocol is contrary to the religious beliefs or basic values of the prospective subject, whether expressed orally or in writing. A legally authorized representative may not consent to participation in human research involving nontherapeutic sterilization, abortion, psychosurgery or admission for research purposes to a facility or hospital as defined in § 37.1-1.
C. Except as provided elsewhere in this chapter, no investigator may involve a human being as a subject in research covered by this chapter unless the investigator has obtained the legally effective informed consent of the subject or the subject's legally authorized representative. An investigator shall seek such consent only under circumstances that provide the prospective subject or the legally authorized representative sufficient opportunity to consider whether or not to participate and that minimize the possibility of coercion or undue influence.
D. The human research review committee may approve a consent procedure which omits or alters some or all of the basic elements of informed consent, or waives the requirement to obtain informed consent, if the committee finds and documents that (i) the research involves no more than minimal risk to the subjects; (ii) the omission, alteration or waiver will not adversely affect the rights and welfare of the subjects; (iii) the research could not practicably be performed without the omission, alteration or waiver; and (iv) after participation, the subjects are to be provided with additional pertinent information, whenever appropriate.
§ 32.1-162.19. Human research review committees.
A. Each institution or agency which conducts or which proposes to conduct or authorize human research shall establish a human research review committee. The committee shall be composed of representatives of varied backgrounds to ensure the competent, complete, and professional review of human research activities conducted or proposed to be conducted or authorized by the institution or agency. No member of the committee shall be directly involved in the proposed human research or have administrative approval authority over the proposed human research except in connection with his responsibilities as a member of the committee.
B. No human research shall be conducted or authorized by such institution or agency unless the committee has reviewed and approved the proposed human research project giving consideration to (i) the adequacy of the description of the potential benefits and risks involved and the adequacy of the methodology of the research; (ii) if the research is nontherapeutic, whether it presents more than a minimal risk to the human subjects; (iii) whether the rights and welfare of the human subjects involved are adequately protected; (iv) whether the risks to the human subjects are outweighed by the potential benefits to them; (v) whether the risks to subjects are minimized by using procedures that are consistent with sound research design and that do not unnecessarily expose subjects to risk and, whenever appropriate, by using procedures already being performed on the subjects for diagnostic or treatment purposes; (vi) when some or all of the subjects are likely to be incapable of making an informed decision regarding consent or are otherwise vulnerable to coercion or undue influence, such as children, prisoners, pregnant women, mentally disabled persons, or economically or educationally disadvantaged persons, whether additional safeguards have been included in the study to protect the rights and welfare of these subjects; (vii) whether the informed consent is to be obtained by methods that are adequate and appropriate and whether the written consent form is adequate and appropriate in both content and language for the particular research; (viii) whether the persons proposing to conduct the particular human research are appropriately competent and qualified; and (ix) whether the criteria for selection of subjects are equitable. The committee shall require periodic reports from each existing human research project to ensure that the project is being carried out in conformity with the proposal as approved.
C. The regulations of an institution or agency may authorize the committee to conduct an expedited review of a human research project which involves no more than minimal risk to the subjects if (i) another institution's or agency's human research review committee has reviewed and approved the project or (ii) the review involves only minor changes in previously approved research and the changes occur during the approved project period.
§ 32.1-162.20. Applicability of federal policies.
Human research which is subject to policies and regulations for the protection of human subjects promulgated by any agency of the federal government shall be exempt from the provisions of this chapter.

References: § 46
 § 54
 § 54
 § 37

§ 32

§ 32