Human experimentation

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Medical experiments on human beings are an important part of medical research, and many people volunteer for clinical trials of medical treatments. Some people also volunteer to be subjects for experiments in basic medical science and biology.

Some experiments can involve the testing of cosmetic products or ingredients on humans instead of animals. In some notable cases, doctors have performed experiments on themselves, where they have not been willing to risk the lives of others: this is known as self-experimentation.

Contents 1 Medical experimentation on unconsenting people 1.1 Before World War II 1.2 World War II 1.3 After World War II, but not ongoing 1.4 Ongoing 2 Questionable psychological experiments 3 Further Readings 4 See also 5 External links

Medical experimentation on unconsenting people

There has also been medical experimentation on unconsenting humans, either covertly, or under coercion. In some cases, the pretext of medical experimentation has been used as a justification for some of the most shameful atrocities of human history.

Some of these episodes include:

Before World War II

• Britain: human experimentation on 80,000 political prisoners in Andaman Islands [1]

World War II

• Germany: Nazi human experimentation
• Japan: Unit 731

After World War II, but not ongoing

• United States: MKULTRA, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, hepatitis experiments on children at Willowbrook State School, and human radiation experiments.
• United Kingdom: (voluntary) human experimentation at Porton Down in the 1950s, leading to the death of Ronald Maddison
• Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer came under fire in 2001 for allegedly testing meningitis drugs on African children. [2]

Ongoing

• North Korea: Alleged North Korean human experimentation

Questionable psychological experiments

Several experiments have been conducted on consenting volunteers whose ethical nature is now considered questionable. Since these experiments, the rules regarding informed consent have been tightened.

• Milgram experiment
• Stanford prison experiment

Further Readings

• Andrew Goliszek, In the Name of Science: A History of Secret Programs, Medical Research, and Human Experimentation, St. Martin's Press 2003, ISBN 0312303564
• Kevorkian, Jack: A brief history of experimentation on condemned and executed humans. JAMA 77 (1985) pp.215-226
• Lederer, Susan: Subjected to science. Human experimentation in America before the Second World War Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press 1995

See also

• Doctors' Trial

External links

• Alliance for Human Research Protection
• http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/178_09_050503/letters_050503-10.html
• http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/10817.html
• http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opbooks.jsp?id=ns24356