Tokaimura & Related Discussions

[FASeiler@aol.com]

Dear Radsafers:
I have followed with interest Tosh's work on the exposed workers and
the firestorm following Franz's initial post.  There are some thoughts I
would like to share with you all.
    As a former NBC Defense officer on the Swiss Army Command,
I once carefully studied the effects of doses in the 10 to 100 Gy range.
I am, therefore,  quite interested in Tosh's effort.  I appreciate it, and
if you will go offline with it, Tosh, please include me with my usual
e-mail address: faseiler@nmia.com (not with this AOL address).  
    I think that I need not comment on the climax of the firestorm, 
but would like to say some things about its beginning:

-   I have always enjoyed Franz Schoenhofer's comments, and 
    particularly so when I disagreed with him.  Mustering your 
    counter arguments does exercise your gray matter on the
    subject under discussion.  So please, Franz, do keep the
    list interesting.   :-) 

-   Ethical matters are never easy, they require a lot of personal
    thoughts, even self examination.  I read Tosh's updates with
    professional interest, nothing else.  But I can understand 
    Franz's     arguments very well; sometimes reading these notes
    does feel like prying into someone else's privacy sphere.

-   Maybe a more extreme ethical situation may help us to 
    crystalize our thinking.  In both German and Japanese 
    prison camps, human experimentation was carried out.
    Among others, experiments on toxic response and on
    survival in cold sea water were carried out. There is no
    question about the lack of ethics in those experiments.
    But the problem arises: what about the results?  Some
    people think they are tainted and should not be used. 
    Others, and I include myself here, feel that the deed has
    been done, and the patients have died.  If we destroy the
    data or do not use them, our action robs their deaths of
    any meaning they might have had.  In fact, they are now
    being wronged a second time.

-   If the data are correctly obtained and thus scientifically
    valid, despite the unconscionable deed done to obtain 
    them, I feel that these data represent something that 
    we should accept gratefully and should not throw away.
    It would be an insult to their suffering if we were to do 
    that.

-   The three Japanese workers were exposed through no
    fault of their own.  Mr.  A and Mr. B and their families 
    have suffered a lot.  Again the question arises: Are they
    suffering in vain, or can at least some good come from it?

On that thoughtful note, I wish all of you a happy Christmas,
New Year, and Y2K Season.
    Fritz
    
********************************
Fritz A. Seiler 
Sigma Five Associates
P.O. Box 1709
Los Lunas, NM 87031
Tel.   505-866-5193 
Fax.  505-866-5197
e-mail: faseiler@nmia.com
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