Medical ExperimentationThroughout history, humans have routinely used other human beings for scientific research and medical experimentation. Vivisection was practiced for centuries by ancient civilizations to augment their knowledge of anatomy. Physicians in the Middle Ages honed their craft not only on cadavers and animals, but also on condemned criminals. By the eighteenth century, Europe and the United States had ushered in the scientific revolution, with prisoners, heretics, and slaves providing a steady stream of bodies to help researchers better understand their fields of science.
During the last 200 years, human experimentation has added its own chapter to a long and nefarious history. Deadly medical procedures, eugenics programs, chemical and radiation exposure, mind-altering drugs, and dubious vaccine trials have been part and parcel of what many historians believe were the seeds that ultimately took root in the experimental race and genetics programs of Nazi Germany. As technology and medicine advanced at breakneck speed, at no time in history had there been such a willingness to exploit human life for the benefit of scientific progress.