Human Experimentation
Subjecting human beings to unethical scientific experimentation was first practiced in a widespread and systematic manner by the Nazis. Concentration camp inmates had various torture techniques practiced on them, were frozen or starved to death to gather data on the limits of human endurance, and were given countless varieties of drugs, among other unspeakable ordeals. In the last days of the war both American and Russian agencies rushed to capture as many of these Nazi doctors of death as they could, not to punish them for their crimes, but to recruit them for their own studies. An enormous trove of documents chronicle the brutal experiments carried out in America over the next two decades. By the mid-sixties, laws had come into effect significantly limiting the types of research that could be done on people. Documentation of such practices has become much more scare since that time, but the occasional leaked story shows unethical human experimentation projects continue, simply in a more clandestine manner.
1941 - At the University of Michigan, virologists Thomas Francis, Jonas Salk, and other researchers deliberately infect patients at several mental institutions with influenza.
1941 - Researcher William Black deliberately infects a twelve-month-old baby with herpes.
1941 - The Nazis begin hypothermia experiments on hundreds of prisoners, sometimes freezing them to death. The tests are principally carried out at Dachau and Auschwitz.
1941 - The Nazis begin sterilization experiments on thousands of prisoners at Auschwitz, Ravensbruck, and other camps. Radiation, surgery, and drugs are all tested. Ultimately hundreds of thousands will be sterilized by the Nazis.
1942 - The Chemical Warfare Service begins a series of experiments which expose thousands of U.S. soldiers to mustard gas.
1942 - The U.S. Navy sponsors an experiment in which 64 prisoners in Massachusetts are injected with cow blood.
1942 - At the Ravensbruck concentration camp, Nazi doctors carry out bone, muscle, and nerve transplant experiments, operating on victims without the use of anesthesia. Other prisoners are deliberately infected with various bacteria to test the efficacy of sulfonamide, a synthetic antimicrobial agent.
1942 - At the Dachau concentration camp, Nazi doctors infect around 1,000 prisoners with malaria and test various antimalarial drugs on them. About half of the victims die. Around the same time, 200 other prisoners are placed in a low-pressure chamber to simulate high-altitude conditions for Nazi fighter pilots. 80 of the prisoners die in the experiments and the others are executed shortly afterward.
1943 - At Auschwitz, the Nazi doctor Josef Mengele performs numerous experiments on nearly 1,500 sets of twins imprisoned there. Only 200 or so individuals survive.
1943 - At Buchenwald, Nazi doctors test various poisons on prisoners. Those who aren't killed outright by the poisons are executed so that they can be autopsied.
1944 - At Dachau, Nazi doctor Hans Eppinger forces 90 Roma prisoners to subsist solely on seawater to determine how long it would take them to become gravely ill or die.
1945 - Part of the research for The Manhattan Project includes giving injections of plutonium to three medical patients without their knowledge or consent.
1945 - General Douglas MacArthur [33] learns of Unit 731, a secret Japanese chemical and biological warfare center which killed tens of thousands in grisly human experiments. Rather than see that they are prosecuted for war crimes, MacArthur offers the units leaders immunity in exchange for their information on biological and chemical warfare.
1945 - Malaria experiments at the Stateville Penitentiary in Illinois are brought to light. Inmates were exposed to malaria and had several antimalarial drugs tested on them. Nazi doctors at the subsequent Nuremburg Trials point to these experiments in defense of their own human experimentation projects.
1946 - Researchers at the University of Rochester inject Uranium-234 and Uranium-235 into six subjects to test the results.
1946 - The Ferndale Center in Massachusetts conducts radiation experiments on mentally retarded boys as part of a "Science Club". Founder Walter Ferndale was a leading American proponent of eugenics.
1946 - U.S. researchers led by John Charles Cutler infect over 700 Guatemalan civilians, including children, with syphilis. Cutler will later go on to participate in the Tuskegee syphilis experiments on American civilians.
