The Cincinnati Radiation Experiment

The Cincinnati Radiation Experiment

By: Danielle McKernan and Kelly McCann

Consequences?

The Harmful Effects

Works Cited

Setting the Scene

• Damage to nerve cells

• Severe loss of white blood cells

• Victims are more prone to blood clotting and hemorrhaging

• Families of those affected by the experiment fought for justice

• Seanger was never punished or jailed for being the head of such a horrific experiment

• The Cincinnati Radiation Experiment was conducted from 1960 to 1972

• Done at the Cincinnati General Hospital, now known as the University Hospital

• Dr. Eugene L. Sanger was in charge of the experiment

• Funding from the Department of Defense

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2007/10/04/rad.html

http://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialsciences/ppecorino/MEDICAL_ETHICS_TEXT/Chapter_7_Human_Experimentation/Case_Study_Radiation_Experiments.htm

http://www.brooklynrail.org/2002/10/express/american-mengele-human-radiation-experim

http://library.thinkquest.org/3471/radiation_effects_body.html

http://hps.org/aboutthesociety/people/inmemoriam/eugenesaenger.html

Discussion Questions

Unethical because...

The Experiment

• The "patients" were lied to and deliberately put in danger

• Doctors took advantage of people who were seeking cancer treatment and conducted experiments they did not consent to participate in

• Doctors knew the implications of radiation poisoning and knew the subjects would die relatively quickly

• Participants were mostly black and all struggling financially

• Men and Women with cancer

• Victims were given lethal doses of radiation for a secret military experiment that they were unaware of

• They were told they were getting treated for cancer pains

• Radiation was injected throughout their body rather than only where it was needed

• Even long after the experiment went public, Dr. Eugene L. Saenger spoke out defensively about his experiments and said they were useful and important, do you think his argument is valid?

• How do you feel about the fact that the government was the one throwing money at this test, and if it wasn't for their encouragement to injure people the study probably would have never happened?

• Why do you think people ignored Martha Stephen, an English teacher at the University, when she first spoke out about the horrors in the early 70s?