It has been almost six decades since the landmark article “Ethics and Clinical Research” was published by Dr. Henry K. Beecher in the New England Journal of Medicine. The impact of the Article remains a source of debate on what Beecher was actually trying to accomplish in publishing what is arguably the most important Article in the history of ethics in clinical research.  While the response to the Beecher Article was swift and accompanied by a barrage of regulations, over time it has become unclear if the regulations were designed to protect human subjects or rather to protect funding agencies, organizations, and researchers. This talk will take a deep dive into the history of the ethics and regulation of clinical research and its pursuit of human subjects protections.