Document zb03D9dezQD3bVJZNOe0Dxgg

F e b ru a ry 27, 1957 M r. W alter M . Shohl H0 te i A lm s C in cin n ati, Ohio D e ar M r. Shohl: I am sending to you, on the advice and w ith the consent of D ean D c rst and P re s id e n t L an g sam , a m em o ran d u m p re p a re d in The K etterin g la b o r a to r y on "The Use of Hum an E xperim ental S u b jects." C ertain q u estio n s w ere ra is e d in this L ab o rato ry som e m onths ago on this su b ject, and it seem ed w ise to look into the policies of o th e r ex p erim en tal ?roups and o rg an izatio n s, and to develop a policy fo r o u r own guidance. It w as not easy to find fo rm al o r o fficial pronouncem ents on the su b ject, and it is m y im p re ssio n , from, the ex p erien ce of som e of m y a sso c ia te s in th e ir a ttem p ts in d irectio n , that the p ro b lem 'h as been looked a t o fficially and then sid estep p ed , on the th eo ry , p erh ap s, that this is a p ro b lem fo r p h y sician s to solve on th e ir own re sp o n sib ility . Be th is as it m ay, it seem ed w ise to bring o u r effo rts to the atten tio n of the D ean and the P re s id e n t, who then a g re e d th a t it w ould be a d v isa b le to p re s e n t it to you or so m e eeci-Sion a s to be concern, or th e B o a ra , o r advice to u s, a3 tue case may cc. N eed less to say , this is a com plicated m a tte r. I am p re p a re d to d eal w ith it w ithin o u r own fa irly sim p le field of a ctiv ity , in acco rd an ce w ith the p ro v isio n s of the m em orandum , and I am not co n cern ed auout it unduly, fro m the asp ect of the resp o n sib ility of the U n iv ersity . M oreover, I a m by no m ean s c e rta in th a t o u r p ro c e d u re s and a ttitu d e s w ill apply to the o b se rv a tio n s, som e of w hich a re fran k ly e x p e rim e n ta l, th at a re m ade on p atien ts. I do know that experim ental la b o ra to rie s, aa differentiated from h o sp itals, a re highly vu ln erab le w hen they u n d ertak e any ex p erim en ts on people, e sp ecially people who a re ill in any w ay, o r who m ay be re n d e red ill, even b rie fly and in sig n ific a n tly (in sy m p to m a tic te rm s ), by any e x p e rim e n ta l p ro c e d u re . The p ro b le m , of c o u rs e , is one of m o ra l pu rp o se and judgm ent and of p ru d en ce. The death of a W alter H eed in a self-conducted ex p erim en t, involving the tru th of the hypothesis of the in sec t tra n sm issio n of a leth al d isease, w as certain ly an exam ple of hero ic se lf-sa c rific e eith er to scien tific c u rio sity -r to hum an w elfare {however one m ay choose to look a t it). The m a tte r h as a d ifferen t ap p earan ce if a n o th er p e rso n is the 0003163