Re: HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS

[Bernard L Cohen <blc+@pitt.edu>]

Bernard L. Cohen
Physics Dept.
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
Tel: (412)624-9245
Fax: (412)624-9163
e-mail: blc+@pitt.edu


On Fri, 22 Nov 1996, Frank Free Spirit Borger wrote:

> 
> > Apples and oranges isn't it?  Drafting people into the armed services for
> > purposes of national defense is a "little" different from taking advantage
> > of a patient's trust to administer un-needed agents for purposes of
> > scientific inquiry.
> > Keith Welch
> 	I have to say something. There are two basic questions involved.
> 
> 	1/ Was there or was there not informed consent?

---Actually there is good evidence that there was informed consent in the
plutonium injection experiments, but written records were not required at
that time. There was one case after written records were required, and the
record is on hand, and that was the case in which Hazel O'Leary publically
apologized over national TV. All but that case was during the war
(1944-45) when U.S. draftees were being sent on missions with no informed
consent and were killed by the thousands.

> 
> 	2/  What were the relative risks/benifits.

---There was essentially no risk because all of those injected were
expected to be dead within 10 years, and harm from plutonium does not
occur within 10 years. The fact is that none of the injectees was harmed.
The benefits were enormous because these experiments allowed use of
plutonium for national defense purposes without harm to the thousands of
workers involved in handling plutonium.
> 
> Frank R. Borger - Physicist - Center for Radiation Therapy
> net: Frank@rover.uchicago.edu   ph: 312-791-8075 fa: 791-3697
> 
> "If there is only one plane left  to make a final run-in, I
> want that man to go in and get a hit." - LCDR John C. Waldron,
> CO USS Hornet's Torpedo Squadron 8. at the battle of Midway
>