 The principle of beneficence plays a foundational role in the framework of research ethics and federal regulations in the United States (and beyond). This principle’s prominence is historically traceable to the publication of the Belmont Report in 1978 by The National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. The Belmont Report has provided the basic moral framework for research ethics in the United States. This commission was established in 1974 by the U.S. Congress with a charge to discover and publish the basic principles of human research ethics and also to "consider" the boundaries between biomedical research and accepted medical practice. The commission found that beneficence is one of only three basic principles of research ethics. This principle soon became and remains today one of three canonical principles in American research ethics governing research funded by the federal government.