Abusive medical research, whistleblowers, and institutional power (21 September 2024)

Summary

In this Lancet article, Jeremy Greene reflects on Carl Elliott's book 'The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No'. He highlights a case that Elliott examines in the book, in which 80 people—mostly black patients on low incomes—were enrolled by Eugene Saenger to take part in human radiation experiments. Between 1960 and 1972, Saenger tested megadoses of total body radiation that were not primarly intended as therapy, but to observe the effects of different doses of radiation on the human body. Patients believed they were receiving a potentially life-saving therapy, but were being exploited in the name of research. Nearly a quarter of the patients died within two months of irradiation—the higher the dose, the higher the risk of death. After decades of denial, the hospital was forced to apologise only after the outcome of a Congressional inquiry, a Presidential bioethics commission, and a series of civilian lawsuits. Elliot highlights the difference in the way in which the victims and Saenger are treated in memorials at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center—Saenger is memorialised through a glass cabinet full of his medals, photographs of his research team and historical research instruments. In contrast, the victims are remembered in a small plaque overgrown by plants in the hospital courtyard, funded by the patients' families.