Book ID: CBB697182722

Dangerous Medicine: The Story behind Human Experiments with Hepatitis (2021)

unapi

Halpern, Sydney A. (Author)


Yale University Press


Publication Date: 2021
Physical Details: 304
Language: English

From 1942 through 1972, American biomedical researchers deliberately infected people with hepatitis. Government-sponsored researchers were attempting to discover the basic features of the disease and the viruses causing it, and to develop interventions that would quell recurring outbreaks. Drawing from extensive archival research and in-person interviews, Sydney Halpern traces the hepatitis program from its origins in World War II through its expansion during the initial Cold War years, to its demise in the early 1970s amid an outcry over research abuse. The subjects in hepatitis studies were members of stigmatized groups—conscientious objectors, prison inmates, the mentally ill, and developmentally disabled adults and children. The book reveals how researchers invoked military and scientific imperatives and the rhetoric of a common good to win support for the experiments and access to recruits. Halpern examines the participants’ long-term health consequences and raises troubling questions about hazardous human experiments aimed at controlling today’s epidemic diseases.

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Reviewed By

Review Susan M. Reverby (2023) Review of "Dangerous Medicine: The Story behind Human Experiments with Hepatitis". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 455-456). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB697182722/

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Authors & Contributors
Stark, Laura
Guerrini, Anita
Bickford, Andrew
Razumenko, Fedir
Babb, Sarah
Weigand, Amy
Concepts
Human experimentation
Medicine and ethics
Biology and ethics; bioethics
Science and ethics
Biomedicine
Medicine and government
Time Periods
20th century
21st century
20th century, late
Early modern
Modern
Medieval
Places
United States
Nagasaki (Japan)
Hiroshima-shi (Japan)
West Germany
Japan
Germany
Institutions
National Institute of Health (U.S.)
Radiation Effects Research Foundation
Cincinnati General Hospital
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