04-03-2013, 11:50 AM
HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS
HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENTS.pptx (Size: 1.09 MB / Downloads: 43)
INTRODUCTION
In preparing America for nuclear attack during the Cold War years following World War II, thousands of US citizens became the innocent victims of over 4,000 secret and classified radiation experiments conducted by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) and other government agencies, such as the Department of Defense, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the Public Health Service (now the CDC), the National Institutes of Health, the Veterans Administration (VA), the CIA, and NASA.
WHAT IS HUMAN RADIATION EXPERIMENT?
Experiments on individuals involving intentional exposure to ionizing radiation. This category does not include common and routine clinical practices, such as established diagnosis and treatment methods involving incidental exposures to ionizing radiation.
Experiments involving intentional environmental releases of radiation that were designed to test human health effects to ionizing radiation, or were designed to test the extent of human exposure to ionizing radiation.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
United States developed the first atomic bombs during World War II and used them against Japan
Nuclear arms race
When a nuclear weapon explodes near the ground, most of the energy goes into three effects. the blast, thermal energy and Ionizing radiation
The short-term and long term effects
The need to expand the body of knowledge about this phenomenon
Since early 1940’s….
If a hospital patient was thought to have less than 10 years to live, some were injected with plutonium so scientists could study its effects. The patients were not told what it was. They thought it would help them get better.
Ethics of Human Experiment
The centrality of informed consent to the ethical use of human subjects in research was established as an internationally accepted principle by the Nuremberg Military Tribunal in 1949, reiterated by the Helsinki Code of the World Medical Association in 1963, and updated in 1975 [38,46].
Even before World War I, the American jurist Benjamin Cardozo articulated the doctrine as follows: "Every human being of adult years and sound mind has a right to determine what shall be done with his own body"
Informed Consent MUST Include:
The patient's diagnosis, if known;
The nature and purpose of a proposed treatment or procedure;
The risks and benefits of a proposed treatment or procedure;
Alternatives (regardless of their cost or the extent to which the treatment options are covered by health insurance);
The risks and benefits of the alternative treatment or procedure; and
The risks and benefits of not receiving or undergoing a treatment or procedure
CONCLUSION
The human radiation experiments on human subjects without their informed consent is absolutely unethical.
Due to the growing public concern for adequate protection of human subjects in research, today there are many federal, state and institutional policies, procedures and regulations. All the principles and standards given by various above regulations must be followed.