Developing Legal Competences in Medical Students as Applied to Biomedical Research: Pedagogical Experience Based on the Standards of the Declaration of Helsinki

The growing volume of biomedical research requires scientists and physicians to possess not only profound professional but also modern legal competences, given the dynamic development of legislation and the high level of responsibility for upholding human rights and freedoms. This article addresses the apparent contradiction between the objective need to develop legal competences in future medical professionals for the ethical and safe implementation of biomedical projects and their insufficient legal training within existing educational programs. The purpose of this study is to assess the level of medical students’ awareness of the legal and ethical principles that are keys in research involving humans and animals, as well as to analyze the development of their legal competences. In this regard, the article focuses on the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki, which serves as a global benchmark for ethical research practices and is integrated into Russian national legislation. The authors present the results of an anonymous online survey of 177 medical students majoring in General Medicine, Pediatrics and Dentistry. These results have shown that the respondents share key ethical values in scientific research but lack the legal knowledge necessary to develop their legal competences. This represents an important pedagogical challenge in this context and underscores the need to incorporate professionally oriented legal disciplines into medical educational programs. The materials and conclusions of this article may also be useful to researchers and practicing physicians in addressing pressing scientific challenges in biomedicine and healthcare.