There is a very thin line—one that’s easy to cross and even easier to blur in the field of medicine—where ethical experimentation and the malicious pursuit of knowledge through unethical means meet and perhaps even overlap. What is ethical science in the world of human subjects, and who’s to be the judge of that? Is consent all that’s really needed for an experiment to be considered humane, and if so, how much consent? How many of the details does a patient need to know to reach the threshold of doctors safely saying that consent was, in fact, informed consent? Throughout history, this line has been crossed many times, much to the tragic dismay, torture, and even death of some of the so-called patients who’ve been experimented on. There have been great breakthroughs in medical science through experimentation on living human beings, but at what cost? Sometimes, tests were conducted upon individuals without their knowledge that they were the subjects of an experiment. Here are 10 such cases that led to medical breakthroughs. 10 Influenza1941 Nobody likes getting the flu. It comes along when we least expect it, infecting us and making us sick for days or even weeks, sometimes leaving us bedridden for extended periods of time. But imagine getting the flu unsuspectingly and then finding out that someone had administered it to you. Well, that’s exactly what happened in the United States from 1941 onward in the name of experimentation. Thomas Francis Jr., the microbiologist who originally isolated the viruses known as influenza A and B, conducted some of these experiments in 1941 on institutionalized persons, including children. Many of the experiments were conducted using people who’d become property of the state or were otherwise in mental asylums. Francis didn’t tell them that he was spraying his recently isolated flu virus up their noses when he gave them a nasal spray. Even more terrifying, when the medical community found out about it, they seemed to think that the ends justified the means. The dominant ideology of the day was that it was perfectly okay to subject unwitting people to diseases and medical mistreatment as long as the research led to breakthroughs.[1] These tests paved the way for a greater understanding of influenza as a series of viruses and led to vaccines, many of which protected US troops during World War II. 9 Gynecology Gynecology is a science that has a history replete with unethical tests and especially surgeries on subjects. What a nightmarish thought it is to be strapped or forced down while someone performs a surgery on you without your consent as you struggle to break free. James Marion Sims was a surgeon and scientist who’s often credited as being “the father of modern gynecology.” The ways he came to his conclusions in medicine were rather striking. His experiments took place in the 1840s in the United States when slavery was still legal. They were conducted without anesthesia almost exclusively on enslaved women who hadn’t given consent. Extremely painful surgeries were performed on helpless women who couldn’t legally say no. Through these methods, Sims invented all sorts of dilators which opened the vagina, especially to treat vaginal fistulas, abscesses, or openings that connect one organ to another unnaturally. He forced his various instruments on unwitting women in the name of science and sadly paved the way for a lot of gynecological work as we know it today. If anything, these faceless women who suffered at the hands of medical experimentation should be called “the mothers of modern gynecology” rather than giving James Marion Sims a similar title.[2] 8 Spinal Taps Back in 1896, we didn’t quite yet know whether spinal taps would be harmful procedures with short-term or long-term effects. Thus, some tests needed to be done. In one of the most twisted cases of medical experimentation, a doctor by the name of Arthur Wentworth stepped up to the plate. He performed spinal taps on 29 children to test the safety of the procedure. Obviously, these children could not consent, and some argued that the kids weren’t even sick. Even for that time, people were outraged that a doctor was using children to test the safety of a new surgical procedure. Even worse, it was immediately alleged that Wentworth didn’t even gather consent from the parents, who also didn’t know that their children would be used to study the effectiveness of spinal taps. But it’s certain that Wentworth was instrumental in pioneering many modern surgical procedures, such as the lumbar puncture which is still used today.[3] His supporters at the time claimed that the ends justified the means, while his opponents were mortified. 7 San Quentin San Quentin is a prison in Northern California near San Francisco. It became the place that would facilitate one of the worst cases of experimentation on living, non-consenting subjects in history. These nightmarish tests were conducted by Leo Stanley, who served as the chief medical surgeon for the prison from 1913 to 1951. Stanley brought about some medical advancements in an extremely unorthodox way. In fact, he taught us exactly what not to do. During his tenure, Stanley was obsessed with the genitals of men. He fixated on Hitler-like eugenics, hated homosexuality, thought that white Christians were the superior race, and thus advocated the active sterilization of the rest. In some of the most evil experiments in world history, Stanley took the testicles from deceased prisoners and grafted them into living ones. Even more disturbing, Stanley sometimes transplanted animal testicles into living people.[4] His experiments affected countless men over decades and were his search for a more “vital” man through regulating testosterone production. This was the forerunner to modern hormone therapy before they got the chemistry figured out. Ultimately, Stanley advanced the field of medicine by giving an undeniable example of the need for more oversight in the medical facilities within prison walls. For the longest time, many people like Leo Stanley were able to operate unhindered as long as they conducted...
