Brief history to Prisoner Medical Testing
Throughout history prisoners have been looked to for human experimentation, and many of the reforms put in place today are because of the cruel and destructive nature of prisoner medical testing in the past. Nevertheless, conducting human tests is overall helpful for the greater society. But, in order to conduct such tests regulations must be put in place. From 1940 through the beginning of the 70's the United States allowed prisoners to be used in medical experiments. During this time there weren't many regulations in place that put restrictions on doctors and scientists. They were able reign free, and perform any number of unethical tests. For example, prisoners have been injected with malaria, TB, numerous sexually transmitted diseases, LSD, in addition to many more deadly diseases. However, things began to change in 1976. The National Commission for the protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research started implementing regulations around human research.
*SEE HUMAN RIGHTS SECTIONS FOR FURTHER EXPLANATION*
*SEE HUMAN RIGHTS SECTIONS FOR FURTHER EXPLANATION*
Timeline of Human Medical Testing from the 1940s to 70's:
1944: U.S. begins secret radiation experiments on humans; experiments continue through 1974 but are not widely publicized until the late 1980s
1946: Bikini Atoll used as the target of U.S. bomb tests.
1946: Nuremberg trial of Nazi doctors who tortured prisoners under the guise of experimentation
1947: Nuremberg Code lists ten principles for researchers for the conduct of clinical studies-written by lawyers with a legalistic slant
1948: British Medical Research Council reports on a large clinical trial that had used randomization to assign individuals to experimental and control groups
1948: Andrew Ivy publishes "The History and Ethics of the Use of Human Subjects in Medical Experiments"
1948: First Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1949: World Medical Association's "International Code of Medical Ethics"
1955: Project MKUltra (CIA mind control program)
1956: Willowbrook hepatitis experiments initiated
1959: Henry Beecher publishes article "Experimentation in Man"
1962: Kefauver-Harris amendments to the Federal Food, Drug and Costmetic Act. They include the requirement that subjects in drug trials conducted in the U.S. give full and free consent
1963: Terminally ill patients given live cancer cells without their consent at Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital
1963: American Psychological Association publishes ethical standards
1964: Declaration of Helsinki written by physicians at the World Medical Association offering recommendations for ethical conduct of experiments with humans
1966: Henry Beecher publishes article "Ethics and Clinical Research" in The New England Journal of Medicine
1967: John Fletcher publishes "Human Experimentation: Ethics in the Consent Situation"
1968: M.H. Pappworth publishes Human Guinea Pigs: Experimentation on Man
1970s: Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations begins defining patients' rights and standards for organizational ethics at hospitals
1971: Zimbardo Mock Prison Experiment at Stanford University-psychological research
1972: Patients Bill of Rights
1972: Unethical syphilis study in Tuskegee exposed in Washington Star
1974: National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects established in the U.S.
*1974 does not represent the end of Human Testing, but, the establishment of concrete regulations, such testing still occurred, and still continues to occur today*
More details about the CIA'S 1955 MIND CONTROL pROGRAM |
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CONTEXT:
While attending a meeting with CIA personal a civilian employee took LSD that was part of a CIA test, and committed suicide by jumping 10 stories a few days later. They released a statement saying "circumstances arising out of an experiment undertaken in the course of his official duties for the United States government." DO the costs of Prisoner mEDICAL TESTING OUTWEIGH THE BENEFITS?The snapshot of the article below begins to decompose the highly debated issue regarding the benefits of prisoner testing, in addition, to human testing in general. Very similar to the HeLa cell, although conceived unethically, it too has helped thousands of lives.
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