Unethical Experiments On Children

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 2

Unethical Experiments On Children

STN.Z. Press Assn. —Copyright) LONDON, July 11. Mentally defective or delinquent children had been used in unethical medical experiments in the United States, the “Observer” reported yesterday. A devastating attack on the practice had been made in the “New England Journal of Medicine,” America’s leading medical weekly. Dr. H. K Beecher, professor of research in anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School, charged that patients had been used as experimental subjects who would not have been available if they had been truly aware of the uses that would be made of them. In one study using children, i a new antibiotic, known to interfere with liver function, especially in children, was tried for treatment of acne. After a few weeks, the high Incidence of disordered liver function led to the treatment being stopped. Liver biopsy, pushing a special hollow needle through the

i skin into the liver to punch out a sliver of tissue for microscopic examination, rei vealed liver damage in eight patients. ; Four of these, after the liver r had returned to normal, were

given a “challenge” dose of the drug. Again evidence of disturbed liver function was found. In one of those patients a second “challenge” dose was given. In an institution for mentally defective children in which a mild form of hepatitis frequently occurred, several children were artificially infected with the virus.

Although the parents gave consent, it was not known whether they were fold about the risks. Professor Beecher said that consent in any fully informed sense might not be available.