Bridget Hudson

Miss Burke

Honors English 11

17 May 2017

Annotated Bibliography

Ghooi, Ravindra B. "The Nuremberg CodeA Critique." Perspectives in Clinical Research.

Medknow Publications, June 2011. Web. 21 May 2017.

The Nuremburg code was written in 1947. It has been adopted and is still being put into

practice even in todays medical studies. The Nuremburg Code was created in response to

the human experimentation being performed on prisoners by the Nazi physicians and

investigators. The trial that triggered this response was the Nuremburg Trials. This was

when the most prominent leaders of Nazi Germany were prosecuted for war crimes. The

most famous of these trials is the Trial of the Major War Criminals before the

International Military Tribunal. In this trial twenty-two of the most important Nazi

leaders were being put on trial although some of the most influential had committed

suicide before the trials began. The Doctors Trial was also taking place in Nuremberg

during this time. Lesser war criminals were put on trial for war crimes, crimes against

humanity, the common design or conspiracy and membership in a criminal organization.

These cases were most relevant to the Nuremburg Code. The unethical medical trials

being done in this time period is what inspired the Nuremberg code to be written. The

Nuremburg Code was an expanded yet similar version of the 1931 guidelines that were

enforced during the time of the unethical medical treatments. This information was useful
 because it explained the trials that influenced the creation of the Nuremburg Code. The

Nuremburg code was the beginning of patient ethics in medicine today. Medical trials

that are performed today must follow a list of precautions and ethical issues.

McCally, Michael, et. all, U.S. Government-Sponsored Radiation Research on Humans 1945-
1975. Medicine & Global Survival, vol. 1, no. 1, 1994.

Beginning in the 1940s the United States government secretly began trials studying

radiation on human subjects. Test subjects included approximately 800 pregnant women,

200 cancer patients, 18 students in varying universities, 57 prisoners from Oregon, 64

prisoners from Washington, 11 terminally ill cancer patients, and 19 boys who were

mentally disabled. All of these test subjects had no written consent to take part in these

studies. These studies all took place between the late 1940s through 1967. In these trials

they exposed pregnant women to radioactive iron at Vanderbilt University. The cancer

patients received extreme amounts (200 rads.) of whole body gamma radiation. They also

injected other patients with plutonium. Some were injected with radioactive calcium and

strontium to determine the rate at which radioactive substances are consumed by human

tissue. The article implies that when asked, the Department of Energy and the Clinton

White House were not aware of the testing. Universities, hospitals and government

agencies involved in the studies refused to release information. This is another example

of an unethical medical trial that took place without being fought against. Many people of

this time knew about the trial and continued on with their everyday lives. In the article is

mentions the belief the people decided to let trials like this slip is to avoid conflict. This
 was a time of war for the country and during war people were uncensored to inhumane

treatment. This article is beneficial to my studies because it portrays how recent in history

unethical trials were being performed in the United States.

Nazi Medical Experiments." United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. United States
Holocaust Memorial Museum, Web. 17 May 2017.

This article was chosen because it explains several unethical medical trials performed

during the Holocaust. Once again, these patients did not give their consent to take part in

these trials. In the article it explains that these experiments can be split into three

categories: experiments aimed at facilitating the survival of Axis military personnel,

developing and testing pharmaceuticals and treatment methods for injuries and illnesses

and to advance the racial and ideological tenets of the Nazi worldview. In the first

category the Germans tested patients in different pressures to determine the maximum

altitude their soldiers could parachute to. They also tested the patients with low

temperatures to try and find a treatment for soldiers with hypothermia. For the second

trials, the soldiers were tested with several medications to create an immunity to common

diseases. Here they also tested bone graphing and sulfa drugs. They exposed patients to

toxins and mustard gasses to observe how the human body reacts to each. In the third

experiment they did testing on twins and gypsies. These gruesome experiments were later

revealed during the series of Nuremburg Trials. The Doctors were tried against for crimes

against humanity and a criminal organization. I chose to research this topic because it

gives the background behind the Nuremburg Trials. The Nazis were performing these

trials to expand their information on war weapons to later benefit their army. These trials
 were done against the patients without consent and often resulted in death. This was

another of the series of unethical trials being done during the time of Henriettas case.

Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway, 2017. Print.

In this novel, Henrietta has a daughter with mental disabilities and is no longer able to

take care of her. Once Henriettas cancer began progressing rapidly, she had to send Elsie

to Crownsville. Crownsville had a Hospital for the Negro Insane that Elsie would stay

at. While she was staying here, the hospital was nearly 800 people over the capacity. The

living conditions were not healthy for the patients. Doctors were also using these patients

as test subjects for research without consent. Elsie was a part of the

Pneumoencephalographic and skull X-ray studies in 100 epileptics. For this study, they

drained the patients cerebral spinal fluid from their skull and replaced it with air or

helium to obtain crisper x-ray imaging of the brain. This form of procedure caused the

patients to get headaches, nausea, vomiting and seizures. In Elsies autopsy report, they

stated her probable cause of death was malnutrition because she continued making

herself vomit. It is likely the studies were the cause of her death. The author wrote it was

also likely that she was a part of other testing done in Crownsville. This is an example of

unethical trials done to patients without their written consent. It was also a trial that was

forgotten in history. When researched, I could not find any information on these specific

studies. The doctors who performed these studies covered up their tracks most likely

because they knew it was unethical and would be looked down upon.
U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee." Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 08 Dec. 2016. Web. 17 May
2017.

This article was used to expand my knowledge on the Tuskegee Study. The article gives a

timeline of the study from beginning to end. This study was titled Tuskegee Study of

Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. It was anticipated to only last 6 months but

continued for 40 years. This study worked with syphilis on black male adults beginning

in 1900. This study was one of several medical trials done without consent from the

patient. The males in this trial believed they were being treated or tested for bad blood

instead of being exposed to syphilis. Men signed up to participate in this trial because

they were granted free meals, medical exams and insurance when they took part in the

study. In 1947 a cure to syphilis was found, penicillin. The men in this study were not

given this option to cure their disease, they were not aware that it existed. In 1972 the

Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs learned about the study and declared

an end to it. The study ended in 1947. I chose this study because it was one of the few

trials running during the time of Henriettas cancer. When the people found out about

these studies they were furious. Tuskegee constructed a lab of all black researchers to

work on HeLa cells shortly after the discovery of this study. I believe they began the lab

with HeLa cells to cover their incident regarding the Tuskegee Study. They wanted the

public to calm their rage about the Tuskegee Study and cover up the trials for the benefit

of the university.