Human experimentation - Definition and Overview

Medical experiments on human beings are an important part of medical research, and many people volunteer for clinical trials of medical treatments. Some people also volunteer to be subjects for experiments in basic medical science and biology.

Some experiments can involve the testing of cosmetic products or ingredients on humans instead of animals.

In some notable cases, doctors have performed experiments on themselves, where they have not been willing to risk the lives of others: this is known as self-experimentation.

Medical experimentation on unconsenting people

However, there has also been medical experimentation on unconsenting humans, either covertly, or under coercion. In some cases, the pretext of medical experimentation has been used as a justification for some of the most shameful atrocities of human history.

Some of these episodes include:

Before World War II

• Britain: human experimentation on 80,000 political prisoners in Andaman Islands [1] (http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1399536,00.html)

World War II

• Germany: Nazi human experimentation
• Japan: Unit 731 Japanese human experimentation

After World War II, but not ongoing

• United States: MKULTRA, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, hepatitis experiments on children at Willowbrook State School.
• United Kingdom: human experimentation at Porton Down in the 1950s, leading to the death of Ronald Maddison

Questionable psychological experiments

• Milgram experiment
• Stanford prison experiment

Ongoing

• North Korea: Alleged North Korean human experimentation

The Nuremberg Code and Declaration of Helsinki both set out rules which are intended to stop such abuses.

See also

• Doctors' Trial
• Nazi human experimentation

External links

• http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/178_09_050503/letters_050503-10.html
• http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/10817.html
• http://www.newscientist.com/opinion/opbooks.jsp?id=ns24356