Ethics of experiments on children.

Abstract

In 1958 the Journal published an article describing a study of viral hepatitis performed at Willowbrook State School, Staten Island, New York, an institution for mentally defective children.1 As part of the study, 51 of the children had been purposefully fed infectious fecal extracts. Another paper, a year later, described the inoculation of infectious serum in nine children.2 Few if any questions or objections were raised after these publications, even though in 1949 the World Medical Association had adopted the following statement as part of its International Code of Medical Ethics: "Under no circumstances is a doctor permitted to do . . .