7 Absolutely Evil Medical Experiments

Subject: 7 Absolutely Evil Medical Experiments Mon Oct 11, 2010 1:19 am

Medical progress saves lives, but sometimes scientists let the hope of a breakthrough get in the way of ethics. Recently, the United States government issued a formal apology to Guatemala for experiments done there in the 1940s that involved infecting prisoners and mental patients with syphilis.

The Guatemala project is just one of many terrible experiments done in the name of medicine. Some ethical lapses are mistakes by people sure they're doing the right thing. Other times, they're pure evil. Here are seven of the worst experiments on human subjects in history.

* Tuskegee: The granddaddy of such lapses. The US studied the progression of syphilis in 399 black men from 1932 to 1972. The subjects never received proper treatment—and were told only that they had "bad blood."

* Surgery on slaves: The man known as the father of modern gynecology, J. Marion Sims, conducted experimental surgeries on slave women. Whether the subjects would have chosen to participate if they had the choice remains a fierce topic of debate to this day.
* Japan tests: Japan conducted biological warfare and medical tests on civilians, mostly in China, in the 1930s and '40s. In some cases, wells were infected with cholera and typhoid. As many as 200,000 people may have died.

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7 Absolutely Evil Medical Experiments

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