Final report of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments.

  • United States. Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments.
Date:
1996
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Final report of the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Armageddon far nearer than it does today, the United States government actually did carry out on our citizens experiments involving radiation. That’s when I ordered the creation of this com- mittee. Dr. Faden and the others did a superb job. They enlisted many of our nation’s most significant and important medical and scientific ethicists. They had to determine first whether experiments conducted or sponsored by our government between 1944 and 1974 met the ethical and scientific standards of that time and of our time. And then they had to see to it that our research today lives up to nothing less than our highest values and our most deeply held beliefs. From the beginning, it was obvious to me that this energetic committee was prepared to do its part. We declassified thousands of pages of docu- ments. We gave committee members the keys to the government’s doors, file cabinets and safes. For the last year and a half, the only thing that stood between them and the truth were late nights and hard work. This report I received today is a monumental document—in more ways than one. But it is a very, very important piece of America’s history, and it will shape America’s future in ways that will make us a more honorable, more successful and more ethical country. What this committee learned I would like to review today because | think it must be engraved on our national memory. Thousands of govern- ment-sponsored experiments did take place at hospitals, universities and military bases around our nation. [he goal was to understand the ef- fects of radiation exposure on the human body. While most of the tests were ethical by any standards, some were unethical, not only by today’s standards, but by the standards of the time in which they were conducted. They failed both the test of our national values and the test of humanity. In one.experiment, scientists injected pluto- nium into 18 patients without their knowledge. In another, doctors exposed indigent cancer patients to excessive doses of radiation, a treat- ment from which it is virtually impossible that they could ever benefit. The report also demonstrates that these and other experiments were, carried out on precisely those citizens who count most on the govern- ment for its help—the destitute and the gravely ill. But the dispossessed were not alone. Mem- bers of the military—precisely those on whom we and our government count most—were also test subjects. Informed consent means your doctor tells you the risk of the treatment you are about to undergo. In too many cases, informed consent was withheld. Americans were kept in the dark about the effects of what was being done to them. The deception extended beyond the test subjects themselves to encompass their families and the American people as a whole, for these experiments were kept secret. And they were shrouded not for a compelling reason of national security, but for the simple fear of embarrass- ment, and that was wrong. Those who led the government when these decisions were made are no longer here to take responsibility for what they did. They are not here to apologize to the survivors, the family members or the communities whose lives were darkened by the shadow of the atom and these choices. So today, on behalf of another generation of American leaders and another generation of American citizens, the United States of America - offers a sincere apology to those of our citizens who were subjected to these experiments, to their families, and to their communities. When the government does wrong, we have a moral responsibility to admit it. The duty we owe to one another to tell the truth and to pro- tect our fellow citizens from excesses like these is one we can never walk away from. Our gov- ernment failed in that duty, and it offers an apol- ogy to the survivors and their families and to all the American people who must be able to rely upon the United States to keep its word, to tell the truth, and to do the right thing. We know there 'are moments when words alone are not enough. That’s why I am instruct- ing my Cabinet to use and build on these rec- ommendations, to devise promptly a system of relief, including compensation, that meets the standards of justice and conscience. When called for, we will work with Congress to serve the best needs of those who were harmed. Make no mistake, as the committee