The SRA Symposium - College of Medicine

Papers
The Environmental Protection Agency recently halted a Florida study of the effect of pesticides
on children under the age of 12 months (Kirkpatrick 2005). Partially sponsored by the American
Chemistry Council, the study received a great deal of press and a large level of misrepresentation.
The New York Times was correct in saying that the study represents a conflict of interest: it is
generally unacceptable for an organization to sponsor research on a topic in which it has a vested
interest.
A host of other transgressions exist, but without independent and disinterested and dispassionate
corroboration, I will not enumerate them here. For the curious reader, please see the Sharav Web
page. (Sharav VH. Human Experiments: A chronology of human research. Alliance for Human
Research Protection. http://www.researchprotection.org/history/chronology.html.Accessed 22
October 2004.)
The following two tables provide an overview of the history of research with humans and a timeline
of the protections for human subjects.
Table I: Timeline of Use of Human Subjects
Date Researcher/Sponsor Topic
650 B.C.E. Daniel Nutrition
200 B.C.E. Herophilus of Chalcedon Human anatomy
48 B.C.E. Cleopatra Male and female gestation
200 C.E. Galen Surgery/orthopedics
500 C.E. (?) Israeli medical students Number of joints in body
500 C.E. (?) Rabban Gamaliel Test for virginity
15th-16th centuries Renaissance artists Human anatomy
1796 Edward Jenner Smallpox
1822 William Beaumont Digestion
1844 Horace Wells Anesthetics
1845-59 J. Marion Sims Gynecological surgery
1859 Camille Gibert Contagiousness of syphilis
1874 Armauer Hansen Contagiousness of leprosy
1885 Pasteur Rabies treatment
1900 Walter Reed Yellow fever
1930s US Public Health Service Tuskegee syphilis study
1941-44 Nazi physicians Various topics
1953 US Department of Energy Mass General uranium study
1963 Willowbrook State Mental Hospital Hepatitis
1963 Stanley Milgram Obedience to authority
204 2005 Symposium Proceedings Book