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 Sat, 23 Nov 1996, Sandy Perle wrote:

> >--These radiation experiments were very much directed for national
> defense. Our national defense enterprise was preparing to use large
> quantities of plutonium and needed to know how to handle it. That was
> the purpose of the plutonium injection experiments, not basic
> "scientific inquiry". Not informing them that they were being injected
> with plutonium was a national defense necessity because everything
> about plutonium was secret at that time. There was a war on at that
> time and American soldiers were dying by the tens of thousands. None
> of the people injected were harmed.<
> 
> Anything goes, in the name of national defense? And who decides what 
> is national defense .. our politicians, with their many ulterior 
> motives? Are we to allow "anything" to happen just because we're told 
> it's in our national defense?  Reminds me of sheep going to 
> slaughter.  If we ignore ethics .. we are no better than those we 
> condemn.

---The questions you raise were not applicable in World War II. Our
elected representatives authorized the draft and the public was
overwhelmingly supportive. About 100,000 men gave up their lives and about
a million were wounded. Where is the ethical problem? Isn't it reasonable,
while this was going on, to do the plutonium injection experiments to aid
the war effort. There is good reason to believe that there was oral
informed consent, which was the common practice at that time. These people
were terminally ill and the plutonium would do them no harm. I would have
jumped at the chance to leave the navy landing craft on which I was
preparing to participate in the invasion of Japan at that time, to come
back and participate in the plutonium injection experiments, even though I
wasn't terminally ill.

> 
> Sandy Perle
> Director, Technical Operations
> ICN Dosimetry Division
> Office: (800) 548-5100 Ext. 2306 
> Fax: (714) 668-3149
> 
> E-Mail: sandyfl@ix.netcom.com    
>