Oh, conscienceless researchers all over the globe & at all times in history have always said the same things:

It's for the greater good.

We owe it to the people to make these discoveries.

It may save lives in the future.

etc etc etc.

I think it's really an insatiable ego combined with a voracious appetite for accolades & a complete disregard for people other than as guinea pigs.

When I was a much younger boomer, maybe in junior high, there was a class discussion about the ethics of human experimentation, & the instructor was solidly in favor of it, regardless of the human cost.

His example was that some of the Nazi party's experiments & discoveries had been so very useful to medical research.

It was a long time ago, & they could say things like that.

also had a teacher who declared that there was no such thing as rape;

a woman had a choice.

She could submit, in which case it wasn't rape, or she could fight back, in which case she wouldn't be raped.

Of course, she might have every bone in her body broken, & she might be killed, but if she'd rather be killed than "have sex", that was her choice.

edited to add:

This snippet from the article would crack me up if it weren't actually happening:

"U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius asked a presidential commission to see if it was ethical to test an anthrax vaccine on children.

She has to ask?

If you keep searching you will find lots more. It might be better to stop here.

I had the same thought. I didn't order the book.

I was just sure this would've been before WWII. I am more than appalled to see it's after the Nuremburg code. I want to hug all of those children and let them know how much they matter.

I don't think I could read the book either. Very disturbing.

I, too, would have thought something like this was relegated to the distant past. Reading history, I've often wondered if humans have become inherently kinder over the centuries. Certainly we've learned to think differently. Take something like the Orphan Trains, which began in the 1850s. So well-intentioned, yet so naive. Apparently no one saw the potential for cruelty and suffering so obvious to us today.

When I first moved here in the 1970s I heard stories about an occasional child being adopted from the "place for the retarded" (this must have been the Merna Owens Home) and given a home--a home where he or she became a permanent, free source of help with chores, etc. I hope they at least had emotional needs filled in return.

Wondering about the parents of these children, I can just imagine the doctors telling them it would be best to institutionalize their sons and daughters. Doctors did that a lot back then. Even much more recently, so many doctors, whose opinions carry so much weight, didn't really "get" what children and parents need. In the 70s we learned so much about maternal-infant bonding, for instance, but in my community doctors were still removing newborns from their mothers and dumping them (that word describes what I've seen first hand) in isolettes to scream it out.

When a close friend of mine gave birth to a stillborn daughter in the 80s, she wasn't permitted to see her, even though it's well known how important it is for mothers to hold these babies and know them in this way even for a short time. When she later expressed sorrow that she didn't even have a photograph of her baby, I suggested she ask the hospital if they'd taken any.

Yes, they had, and one of the doctors said he would show them to her. She was so relieved. When she got to the hospital, he turned down the lights and subjected her to a slide show of her baby's autopsy.

Oh My God.

I hope she slapped the snot out of him.

about those parents who were told to institutionalize their children & forget about them:

That's what the doctors advised Dale Evans when she gave birth to a baby girl with Downs Syndrome.

She wouldn't do it.

Even so long ago, when doctors ruled with the power of God over their patients & the only proper response to whatever horror the doctor suggested was a demure "Yes, Doctor", Dale Evans wouldn't give up her baby.

She named the little one Robin, took her home, & loved her & did the best she could for her.

Robin couldn't endure the chaos of the family home, & Dale couldn't stay with her 24/7, so Dale & Roy Rogers built her a small house of her own & hired a nanny.

Sadly, little Robin also had a heart defect & died very young.

but ever since I read Dale's book, Angel Unawares, which made me cry, I've felt tremendous admiration & respect for Dale & for Roy Rogers.

What courage!

What a heart!

What a backbone!

What a momma!

What?! I'm not even a litigious person and your friend should sue that man to the maximum. That is the very definition of pain and suffering. And now I want to hold her too. (((hugs to your friend)))

pain & suffering...

sounds like a really walloping dose of seething rage & sadism too.

"What? She wants to *see* her baby? I'm the doctor, I told her to go home & forget it. She wants to "see", I'll show her."

hope that doctor has had time to have some grief & suffering in his own life.

not enough to kill him, just enough to bring him to his knees & teach him humility & compassion.

I totally agree Sylvia. Totally heartbreaking. as if it wasn't hard enough before, this on top of it?! CRUEL

Societal mores of all kinds change over the years, fortunately mostly for the better. Few of us would find the common practices and views of the world our grandparents or parents lived in to be all that familiar nor all that acceptable. Whether you're interested in the rights and treatment of children, or of women, or of minorities, or of on and on and on.

Back in the early 80's I had the opportunity to work as a life counselor with some higher functioning Mentally Disabled (we called them retarded back then) Adults. Through a program with the United Way, our goal was to mentor and teach them how to live independently on their own. There were 4 total people in my group, 2 males and 2 females and I absolutely adored all of them. 3 out of the 4 had been in institutions for most of their lives and although scared, they were so excited to be on their own. It was really interesting and fun to see them take on new challenges and blossom. By the time we finished, they each lived in an apartment, had jobs and only needed a fraction of the financial aid they had been getting originally, Eventually one of my male clients even married one of my female clients. They were so amazingly special, its very upsetting to think that something like this may have happened to them as well.