by Jeff Elliott
It was not unusual to perform these experiments without the patient's knowledge and consent |
Newly-released documents show that UC/Berkeley performed
the most human radiation experiments of any laboratory funded by the
Energy Department. Of the 425 known studies, the Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory conducted 93, almost all upon Bay Area residents.
Most tests were performed in the early 1950's, although some began as
early as 1936. According to the Department of Energy's Office of Human
Radiation Experiments, the last Berkeley study was in the 1980's.
In many of these studies, it is unclear if the patients granted permission or even knew they were part of a radiation study. Bay Area research including experiments upon pregnant women, children, mental patients, and prison inmates. A 1946 memo declassified earlier this year suggests that it was not unusual to perform these experiments without the patient's knowledge and consent. This memo from an administrator at one of the national atomic research labs noted, "These doctors state that the injections would probably be made without the knowledge of the patient, and that the physicians assumed full responsibility...Such injections were not divergent from the normal experimental method in the hospital and the patient signed no release." Besides County and University hospitals, Berkeley research was conducted at Veterans Hospitals, San Quentin prison, the psychiatric Langley Porter Clinic in San Francisco, and Laguna Honda Home, described as "a hospital for destitute patients." |
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