Unethical experimentation on human being is an issue that many people associate with as in early times but what many
don’t know that to this day it still happens today. Many of these experimentations include: the deliberate infection of people with deadly or debilitating diseases, exposure of people to biological and chemical weapons, human radiation experiments, injection of people with toxic and radioactive chemicals, surgical experiments, interrogation and torture experiments, tests involving mind-altering substances, and a wide variety of others. Many of these experimentations were done on children, the sick, mentally disabled people, poor, racial minorities, and prisoners. Funding for these experiments were by the United States Government. Experimentations on people hurt us as nation because these human beings are the ones being hurt. If people are targeted for these experimentations then what does that say about the human race and our norms and values. Are we willing to hurt those that “don’t fit societies standards” in hope of a better understanding of medicine? For example throughout the 1840s, J. Marion Sims performed surgical experiments on enslaved African women, without anesthesia. The women died from infections resulting from the experiments that were done to her 30 regular times. Sims also performed experiments where he used a shoemaker's awl to move around the skull bones of the babies of enslaved women. |
The U.S. and its History of Making Healthy People SickThe United States has participated in unethical human experimentation both within the country and outside the country. Two cases in which unethical human experimentation for medical purposes took place in were Connecticut and New York. An example of a U.S. led unethical human experiment was in Guatemala. A disturbing fact is that the experiments were performed on mentally-ill people and prison inmates without consent or without being informed about the treatment they would undergo. The unethical history of medical research sponsored by the U.S. government was recently acknowledged by the government itself by means of an apology to Guatemala; President Barack Obama, in a phone conversation, expressed regret over the events that took place in the 1940s to Guatemalan president Alvaro Colom. Later a presidential bioethics commission held a meeting in Washington. where the U.S. government admitted that “there had been dozens of similar experiments in America—studies that often involved making healthy people sick.” The Associated Press of Medical Journal reported having uncovered about 40 cases that involved making healthy people sick. This teaches that there were many unethical human experiments taking place in secret in the U.S. and even sponsored by the U.S. outside of the country--an act that keeps happening even today and that people need to be wary of.
Some of the experiments that involved making healthy people sick happened in the 1940s through the 1960s.. A Yale professor intentionally gave “hepatitis to mental patients in Connecticut” in the 1940s. Later, in the year 1964, it became known that Brooklyn’s Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital was a facility that was injecting non-cancer patients with live cancer cells. According to the New York Post, the person responsible for the idea to inject cancer cells to non-cancer patients was Dr. Chester Southam. Southam “wanted to see if the immunologic systems of debilitated individuals reacted any differently to the introduction of cancerous cells than in people who were healthy.” While some medical research in the form of human experimentation develops a conclusion that can be used to cure disease or better treat people, events like that of Southam were not for the contribution of medicine, but for mere curiosity. The U.S. funded a study to take place in Guatemala “to investigate the use of penicillin to treat and prevent syphilis infection,” but the study was not conducted in an ethical manner. Prisoners and mental patients in Guatemala were victims of becoming infected with syphilis without being informed that they were being deliberately infected. Over the course of 11 years, “1,500 Guatemalan orphans, soldiers, mental health patients, prisoners and sex workers were… infected with syphilis and gonorrhea so that the U.S. government could learn about the effectiveness of penicillin.” In reference to federal medical experiments, “Laura Stark, a Wesleyan University assistant professor of science in society...said: 'There was definitely a sense - that we don't have today - that sacrifice for the nation was important.'” |
Reporter, D. (2011, February 28). America's shocking secret: Pictures that show how U.S. experimented on its own disabled citizens and prison inmates. Retrieved April 23, 2015, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361275/Americas-shocking-secret-US-experimented-disabled-citizens-prison-inmates.html
Hornblum, A. (2013, December 28). NYC's forgotten cancer scandal. Retrieved April 23, 2015, from http://nypost.com/2013/12/28/nycs-forgotten-cancer-scandal/
Hensley, S. (2010, October 1). U.S. Apologizes For Syphilis Experiments In Guatemala. Retrieved April 23, 2015, from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/01/130266301/u-s-apologizes-for-medical-research-that-infected-guatemalans-with-syphilis
Seema, Y. (2015, April 7). Guatemala syphilis study: One of many unethical medical experiments. Retrieved April 23, 2015, from http://healthblog.dallasnews.com/2015/04/guatemala-syphilis-study-one-of-many-unethical-medical-experiments.html/
S. Sartin, MD, J. (2004). Medscape Log In. Retrieved May 20, 2015, from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/479892_3
Hornblum, A. (2013, December 28). NYC's forgotten cancer scandal. Retrieved April 23, 2015, from http://nypost.com/2013/12/28/nycs-forgotten-cancer-scandal/
Hensley, S. (2010, October 1). U.S. Apologizes For Syphilis Experiments In Guatemala. Retrieved April 23, 2015, from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/01/130266301/u-s-apologizes-for-medical-research-that-infected-guatemalans-with-syphilis
Seema, Y. (2015, April 7). Guatemala syphilis study: One of many unethical medical experiments. Retrieved April 23, 2015, from http://healthblog.dallasnews.com/2015/04/guatemala-syphilis-study-one-of-many-unethical-medical-experiments.html/
S. Sartin, MD, J. (2004). Medscape Log In. Retrieved May 20, 2015, from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/479892_3