In October 2000 the General Assembly of the World Medical Association (WMA) met in the UK. This highest decision-making body of the WMA discussed, among other issues, the wording of the latest revised version of the Declaration of Helsinki, the pivotal international ethics document guiding medical research. Nearly two years of international controversy over the document's wording and content came to a conclusion. During this process, the Secretary General reported, the WMA was flooded with hundreds of comments, resolutions and discussion documents from individuals, national medical associations and non-governmental organisations the world over.