Plutonium injection experiments

The accident at Los Alamos was part of the prelude to experiments conducted between 1945 and 1947 in which eighteen hospital patients were injected with plutonium

One patient was injected at Oak Ridge Hospital in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; eleven were injected at the University of Rochester, three at the University of Chicago, and three at the University of California.

Sixteen patient charts were examined for evidence of consent at the time of injection; the other two charts had been either lost or destroyed.

The other fifteen contained no record of consent.

there is general agreement among radiation scientists that the experiments were useful

Even if the plutonium injections had been entirely risk free, an impossibility in human experimentation, they could still be morally problematic.

to determine how excreta (urine and feces) could be used to estimate the amount of plutonium that remained in an exposed worker's body

An inquiry initiated by the AEC commissioners in 1974 investigated some of these questions.

we believe that these experiments were unethical

two basic moral principles were violated--that one ought not to use people as a mere means to the ends of others and that one ought not to deceive others

patient-subjects at the Universities of Rochester and California were never told that the injections were part of a medical experiment for which there was no expectation that they would benefit, and they never consented to this use of their bodies

According to AEC investigators, oral testimony pointed to failure to obtain consent in the case of the Oak Ridge injection and to some form of disclosure to patients for the California and Chicago experiments.

In the case of Mr. Cade at Oak Ridge, a physician claiming to have injected Mr. Cade reported that his consent was not obtained.

But to my knowledge he never found out.

my father was not an informed participant in the plutonium experiment

eleven were injected at the University of Rochester, three at the University of Chicago, and three at the University of California

From 1945 through 1947 Manhattan Project researchers injected eighteen human subjects with plutonium

It appears that this decision was based on concerns about legal liability and adverse public reaction, not national security.

When the civilian Atomic Energy Commission took over for the Manhattan District on January 1, 1947, the plutonium injections provoked a strong reaction at the highest levels.

The Federal government has settled the compensation claims of the 16 families of plutonium injection subjects who have come forward.