The 6 most sinister human experiments in the USA
Under the deceitful promise of scientific progress, Some organizations may even carry out illegal experiments that clearly attack health and the integrity of the human being.
Sometimes it is good to remember that science is not beyond economic and political interests and that Human Rights are not always a factor to be respected by certain authorities.
When the experiments become cruel
Experiments with animals that suffer are not the only way in which research can charge a macabre tinge. When the scientific progress that can be given through them is added the pressure to stay afloat as one of the first world powers, the result can be that of human experiments as brutal as morally reprehensible.
These are some of the worst experiments done in the name of science in the US .
1. MK Ultra Project
People who follow the Stranger Things series will sound the term MK Ultra, but the truth is that it was a project that came to exist beyond fiction. It is a set of experiments initiated during the 1950s and coordinated and promoted by the CIA. Its function was to explore the possibilities of creating forms of mind control that could be applied during torture sessions.
To investigate ways in which people could be forced to confess information, they were injured, given drugs or kept in isolation. Many of these people participated in these experiments without being aware of it , believing that they were simply undergoing medical treatment to mitigate the effects of mental disorders or the diseases they suffered.
The objective of this secret investigation, led by an American doctor called John Cutler , was to study the effects of penicillin on the possible prevention of venereal disease. For it infected dozens of people from the lowest socioeconomic strata were infected with syphilis , at least 83 of them died. These investigations began to come to light in 2005, at which time a university professor found documents about it.
2. Holmesburg Program and experimentation with Agent Orange
Agent Orange, a chemical warfare element widely used by the US during its invasion of Vietnam, was also used in illegal experiments.
During the 50s, 60s and 70s, a doctor called Albert M. Kligman made, on behalf of the US Navy and several private companies, an experiment in which he used 70 prisoners from a prison in Philadelphia. The research had to serve to study the way in which the skin reacts when someone is inoculated with dioxin, one of the components of Agent Orange. These people developed serious skin lesions that were not treated for months .
- You can see a spectacular photo essay of the Holmesbur Program in this Daily Mail article.
3. Trials with truth serum
In the late 40s and early 50s, The US military launched a series of psychological experiments based on the use of drugs known as serums of truth . As the name suggests, these substances were perceived as a potential tool to make people confess confidential information without being able to avoid it.
The use of these drugs not only used to have devastating effects on the mental health of the people with whom they were experimented, but in many cases they created an addiction to them.
4. Experiments with radiation
During the 60s, the Pentagon developed experiments based on subjecting cancer patients with scarce economic resources to intense radiation . During these sessions, the radiation levels were so high that the patients suffered intense pain and experienced nausea and other symptoms.
5. Experiments of syphilis in Guatemala
In the mid-twentieth century, a large part of Latin America remained a region subject to direct domination by the US and its intelligence services, which controlled local governments and repressed popular revolts by financing paramilitaries.
This domain also had its side expressed through experimentation in one of the most notorious cases of illegal experimentation: the infection of people living in Guatemala with venereal diseases during the 40s .
- If you want to know more about this terrible case, we recommend this report from the BBC channel.
6. Mustard gas resistance tests
In the 40s, Thousands of US soldiers were exposed to mustard gas to test chemical warfare protection equipment . Soldiers were not informed of the risks of these tests, and many of them ended up with serious skin burns and lung injuries after being locked in rooms similar to gas chambers.
