In response to all of the other similar radiation experiment posts, I looked into one I discovered that took place in Alaska in the mid-1950's. Scientists from the Air Force were experimenting to see if Iodine could aide in the acclimatization of humans to cold. The Air Force scientists were not aware at the amount of ethical boundaries they crossed as they never gave full explanation of the potential of such an experiment on it's subjects. There is also a lot of gray area when it comes to whether or not consent was fully given. Any opinions when it comes to whether or not this experiment was sound, or in any way unethical?
http://www.hss.energy.gov/healthsafety/ohre/roadmap/achre/chap12_4.html
I think its quite amazing how much testing was done and how few are educated about it. I've never heard of this particular one, but it makes me wonder how many other incidents have been reported or not, especially in the 20th century and the development of modern medicine. It's sometimes weird to think that a lot of our "common" medical practices were once experiments potentially.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea if this is the same thing but when my grandpa was in World War II he was given a shot of something and he says that he didn't get cold after that. I agree with Jeff. Without some form of experimentation there would not be much progress. Some people bring up animal experimentation but then PETA gets drawn in. I don't think there is any way to ethically experiment on someone, there will always be exploitation of some shape or form. I don't think we should stop experimenting but I think there should be definite positive outcomes of a study rather than experimentation for experimentation's sake.
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