WASHINGTON DISLOSURE Cancer patients used in nuclear defence study

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32734, 11 October 1971, Page 13

WASHINGTON DISLOSURE Cancer patients used in nuclear defence study

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON, October 10. The University of Cincinnati has been using incurable cancer patients of a low intelligence level for a Defence Department study of the likely effects of atomic radiation on troops.

The department’s spokesman, Mr Jerry Friedheim, said yesterday that the study was part of a continuing research programme that has been running for about 11 years. “We derive certain information from it,” he said.

The “Washington Post” had reported yesterday that the main purpose of the Pentagon’s contract with the university was to understand

better the influence of radiation on the combat effectiveness of troops. Mr Friedheim said that the newspaper report was essentially correct. The Defence Department had been paying about SUSI7,OOO a year towards the study.

According to the newspaper, the Pentagon’s Nuclear Defence Agency had paid the university SUSBSO,OOO, which had been enough to support the study and to treat 111 patients over 11 years. Senator Edward Kennedy, who is chairman of the Senate Labour and Welfare Commit-

tee’s health sub-committee, yesterday expressed shock at the news of the study, and, in a letter to the Secretary of Defence (Mr Melvin Laird), said: “If the news report is accurate, I believe this project represents an incredible infringement of individual liberty, and establishes a dangerous precedent for the reduction of human rights in our society.” Mr Ellis Motter, a member of the staff of the sub-com-mittee, said that the research study would be looked into as part of a broader inquiry into the ethical and social implications of new bio-medi-cal technology. “The underlying premise is

that some better structure of decision-making is required,” he said.

“In the radiation project, the patients were apparently very under-educated and under-privileged, and were not told fully about the research.

“Another disturbing factor is that the medical officer directing the project for the Pentagon was a veterinarian. Apparently they have' been doing studies of radiation on animals. Research on humans, however, involves both legal and ethical issues.”

The United Methodist Board of Christian Social Concern has adopted a resolution urging President Nixon to call an immediate nalt to all such research. The “Washington Post” report said that the university had been using cancer patients who could no longer be helped by surgery, and who were suffering from tumours which had spread to various parts of their bodies. They were given the kind of total, or part, body radiation the troops might expect from tactical nuclear weapons. Dr John Calbe, who is the Nuclear Defence /Agency’s medical officer for the project, was quoted by the newspaper as saying that the studies would not normally be done in routine treatment of cancer patients. The studies included detailed examination of the effects of radiation on blood cells, chromosomes, the patients’ metabolic processes, and their ability to think, be added.