I wanted to become more informed on other medical experimentation that were occurring during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, and even ones that happened in the latter. I had never heard about the Cincinnati Radiation Experiments before reading these articles. The experiment was conducted during the Cold War in a period of panic of a potential nuclear war across the country. It was shocking to see that terminally ill patients with cancer, a shocking 60% of them were African-Americans, were subjected to extreme forms of radiation on their entire body, not just where they had a cancerous tumor; just for the benefit of the country to see how radiation from a nuclear bomb would affect humans. In regards to consent, it mentions that many consent forms were forged or not signed at all. This government-funded experiment, 40 years after the beginning of the Tuskegee experiment, is just as unfathomable, if not more so. Isn't it bizarre that studies such as this one is not a common-known part of American history? I think that often people look at medical experiments as benefiting the victim, therefore justifying them because they don't really want to learn more about it. From these articles as well as the Tuskegee readings, it was interesting that medical professionals are held so high in status and appreciation by others, that instances such as these don't really even change people's views on doctors and scientists. We still assume that their interest in for the best and it will only benefit us, because after all, their job is to help us feel better isn't it?
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/04/11/us/cold-war-radiation-test-on-humans-to-undergo-a-congressional-review.html
http://targetedindividualscanada.wordpress.com/2011/08/30/cincinnati-radiation-experiments/
I found this post and it's articles super interesting after so much discussion in today's class. You would think they would remember the main reason they were gathering research in the first place. Crazy stuff. But also, I've taken a bunch of American History courses, and I've never heard of this before in any of the classes. Not even a mention of it. It's crazy to think about how quiet something can be kept.
ReplyDeleteBeing a History major myself, I've never heard of this either. I happen to think that this was worse than the Tuskegee Study because I think the doctors knew the effects of radiation poisoning. At least in the Tuskegee Study, syphilis was still a bit of a medical unknown and the men contracted the disease on their own. Cancer isn't contagious or contractible and using radiation in that way has a blatantly obvious result. I think the experiment was conducted out of fear. Americans wanted to know what it would be like if nuclear war ensued, but they had to see it with their own eyes to really get a grip on the intensity of it.
ReplyDelete