Cruel buildings on behalf of science

In the 1940s, about 1,300 prisoners, mental patients and Guatemalan prostitutes were infected with syphilis, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases by some US doctors.

This is not the first time, people have been used as a tool in such experiments.

The whole village went crazy

The report, published by the President's Bioethics Research Committee earlier this week, called the event "a dark chapter in our medical history . " This description is probably too light for what some American scientists have done with Guatemalan subjects. They were never told what purpose they were being used for and among those infected, only more than half were given a medicine to treat it.

Picture 1 of Cruel buildings on behalf of science
About 1,300 Guatemalan people were subjected to some scientists
America infected syphilis to study.

This event reminds people of a number of other unethical experiments that the US has conducted with humans. The MKULTRA project conducted by the CIA Central Intelligence Agency in the 1950s is an example. Thousands of people, though not voluntary and not informed, have been secretly given psychotropic and addictive drugs, including LSD. Many victims were severely damaged mentally.

In 1953, one of these, Frank Olson, the US government's biological weapons expert, committed suicide because of depression. According to the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph , a similar experiment was conducted by the CIA in a small village in the south of France.

In just a few months of 1951, hundreds of people suddenly appeared abnormal neurological and hallucinations. At least 5 people have died, dozens of people have to go to a mental hospital. American investigative reporter HP Albarelli Jr said that the CIA mixed psychedelic drugs into bread and some local people's food.

Children do not forgive

Behind the unethical experiments is not only the CIA or military research organizations, but also some scientists working for top US universities.

In 1971, to answer the question of how a person would change after two weeks in prison, Philip Zimbardo, Stanford University psychology professor recruited 24 students, paying $ 15 each day. then divided them into two groups, prisoners and guards. They were put into a hypothetical environment identical to a prison.

Prison guards are taught some measures to suppress prisoners. They quickly forgot about the usual habits and behaviors in society, becoming cruel to the point of being cruel. The prisoner collapsed. The experiment was forced to end 1 week earlier. But its consequences for the participants are much longer than the author's data.

Not only adults, but children are also turned into experiments. In 1920, to study the fear and impact of classical conditioning, John B. Watson (Johns Hopkins University) used a 9-month-old baby. He exposed the baby to some animals like rabbits, mice and toys to probe the reaction. When the baby does not show fear, the researcher has created strong and unexpected noises every time he intends to touch objects as "bait".

The results are as expected of Watson: The boy cries every time he hears noises and dares not touch anything given. But the subject of experiment is not so lucky. Watson could not do anything to overcome the impact that this cruel study had caused before it was forced to end.