Biological Warfare Research Research Articles

A Personal Perspective on My Scientific Career

A Personal Perspective on My Scientific Career

Inhumane medicine: imperial japan’s development and the use of biological weapons during World War II

There is currently an acute lack of information on the activities of Japanese doctors during World War II. Being a country with limited natural, financial, and human resources, Imperial Japan considered biological and chemical weapons one of the most promising and effective means of warfare in its quest to dominate Southeast Asia. In the mid 1920s, the Japanese leadership approved biological and chemical warfare research. The implementation of the biological weapons project, including human testing, was entrusted to Shiro Ishii and a group of Japanese scientists under his leadership, as well as to military and civilian experts. These studies examined the effectiveness of plague, gas gangrene, cholera, anthrax, and other pathogens. Experiments, including detailed descriptions of the subjects suffering and the results of autopsies/vivisections, were carefully documented. Field tests involved the distribution of contaminated food and crops to the Chinese population, as well as the contamination of water supplies. Similarly, in keeping with military interests, the effectiveness of munitions and the effects of decompression, hypothermia, and electric current were investigated on prisoners. After the end of World War II and the surrender of Imperial Japan, large-scale buried victims of experiments were found on the territory of the Peoples Republic of China, including the borders of the USSR. The paper focuses on the ethical component of the studies conducted, based on the dominant view in the Japanese society that all actions for the glory of the country and the emperor are justified and the absence of any ethical considerations due to the prejudice of the Japanese against foreigners in general and the Chinese in particular.

A Scientific Method to the Madness of Unit 731's Human Experimentation and Biological Warfare Program.

The Japanese Imperial Army Unit 731's Biological Warfare (BW) research program committed atrocious crimes against humanity in their pursuit of biological weapons development during the Second World War. Due to an American cover-up, the details behind Unit 731's human experimentation were slow to be revealed. The recent literature discloses the gruesome details of the experiments but characterizes the human trials as crude in nature. Further, there is a lack of clarity as to how human trial results were extrapolated for use in real world missions. Through an examination of testimony from the Soviet Union's Khabarovsk War Crime Trials, this paper argues that Unit 731's inoculation and airborne warfare experiments on prisoners of war were scientifically rigorous. The scientific method is used as the basis against which the scientific rigor of the experiments is tested. The paper reveals that the successes and failures of the human trials were extrapolated to BW missions during the Sino-Japanese war. American researchers' expectations of BW data were fulfilled, thus paving the way for an immunity deal. Ethical standards in medicine before WWII were not well established, but wartime medical practices and experimentation reveal the context in which the pursuit of scientific knowledge has no boundaries.

Unit 731 and moral repair

Unit 731, a biological warfare research organisation that operated under the authority of the Imperial Japanese Army in the 1930s and 1940s, conducted brutal experiments on thousands of unconsenting subjects....

An evaluation of the potential use of Cryptosporidium species as agents for deliberate release

IntroductionWe evaluated the potential of Cryptosporidium spp. for intentional transmission as a terrorist tactic in asymmetric conflicts in terms of the recognised optimum conditions for biological warfare.MethodsPublished and widely accepted...

The Entomological Institute of the Waffen-SS: evidence for offensive biological warfare research in the third Reich

In January 1942, Heinrich Himmler, head of the Schutzstaffel (SS) and police in Nazi Germany, ordered the creation of an entomological institute to study the physiology and control of insects that inflict harm to humans. Founded in the grounds of the concentration camp at Dachau, it has been the focus of previous research, notably into the question of whether it was involved in biological warfare research. This article examines research protocols by the appointed leader Eduard May, presented here for the first time, which confirm the existence of an offensive biological warfare research programme in Nazi Germany.

From IEDs to AIDS? Detection of HIV in human corpses by rapid screening tests after suspected intentional transmission in terrorist attacks

ObjectivesWe evaluated the feasibility of intentional transmission of HIV by means of suicide bombing and rape as a terrorist tactic in asymmetric conflicts by evaluating the recognised optimum conditions for...

Interview with the Expert: William E. Collins, Ph.D.

William Collins, Ph.D., received his B.S. and M.Sc. degrees in entomology from Michigan State University. He completed his Ph.D. at Rutgers University in two years, just before being inducted into the Army to serve in the Korean War. He was assigned to Fort Detrick at the Biological Warfare Research Laboratories and after three years returned to Rutgers as an extension entomologist. He accepted a position in 1959 with the U.S. Public Health Service, with which he has worked for the last 50 years. In 1963, the Public Health Service laboratory moved to Atlanta and Dr. Collins' group began working with non-human primates following the discovery that monkey malarias were transmissible to humans. Parasites from monkeys or apes isolated in Asia, South America, and Africa were sent to the laboratory in Chamblee, Georgia, where they were adapted and transmitted to laboratory-maintained primates and their life cycles described and characterized. Transmissions to human volunteers were also attempted. In 1973, the laboratory operation was transferred to the CDC, and the emphasis changed from the study of monkey malaria in monkeys to that of human malaria in monkeys. During the last 25 to 30 years, different isolates of human malaria parasites have been adapted to New World monkeys to characterize the isolates for the development and testing of drugs and vaccines. Dr. Collins' task has been to identify and choose the best combination of vector-parasite-host combinations for testing each vaccine candidate. He has co-authored more than 450 manuscripts and has been awarded the U.S. Public Health Service Superior Service Award, The Joseph A. LaPrince Medal for Malariology from the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, The Distinguished Service Award of the Department of Health and Human Services, the William Watson Medal of Excellence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Hoogstraal Medal from the American Committee of Medical Entomology.

Wolfgang U Eckart (ed.), Man, medicine, and the state: the human body as an object of government sponsored medical research in the 20th century, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft, Band 2, Stuttgart, Franz Steiner, 2006, pp. 297, €43.00 (paperback 978-3-515-08794-0).

After Useful bodies (2003, edited by Jordan Goodman, Anthony McElligott and Lara Marks) and Twentieth century ethics of human subjects research (2004, edited by Volker Roelcke and Giovanni Maio), the present volume is the third collection of essays in a short time that explores the “dark side” of human experimentation in the past century through a range of case studies. As in Useful bodies, the focus is on the social and political contexts that facilitated unethical trials on human subjects, and as in the Roelcke/Maio volume, historical and ethical assessments are often coupled (cf. my reviews in Med. Hist. 2005, 49: 221–2; 2006, 50: 254–5). However, Eckart's collection provides more than just an extension of current knowledge about twentieth-century abuses in human research. Arising from a Heidelberg conference in 2003 as part of a larger project on the history of the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) between 1920 and 1970, this book contains several contributions that investigate in detail the dynamics created by state funding for certain areas of medical research, especially during the period of National Socialism. This applies in particular to Volker Roelcke's paper on the psychiatric genetics of Ernst Rudin, Karl Heinz Roth's essay on German aviation medicine, Marion Hulverscheidt's account of malaria research, Alexander Neumann's discussion of nutritional physiology and Gabriele Moser's article on Kurt Blome and cancer research in the Third Reich. Moreover, the DFG's role in redefining and reconstituting anthropology and human genetics as academic disciplines in Germany after the Second World War is analysed by Anne Cottebrune. Revealing as these discussions are regarding the funding drive behind those research fields and its ethical implications, they would have been more useful to a broader readership if the volume had included a background contribution on the institutional development of the German Research Foundation in the relevant period. Also, the English of some of the papers by German authors would have benefited from more careful copy-editing. Other papers add details of the medical atrocities committed in the concentration camps of Nazi Germany, for example of the experiments in Natzweiler with chemical warfare agents and of the notorious hypothermia experiments in Dachau. This is complemented by a contribution on Japanese biological warfare research on Chinese prisoners in Harbin during the Second World War. Till Barnighausen, author of this latter paper, examines for the Japanese experiments the ethical question that has been discussed in the late 1980s and early 1990s with regard to the Nazi concentration camp trials: whether the immorally obtained data from those experiments may ever be used for scientific purposes. The international dimension of human subject research and abuse in the twentieth century is further highlighted by contributions on vaccination experiments on Sengalese infantrymen in the French army between 1916 and 1933 (Christian Bonah), on metamphetamine tests in the German Wehrmacht (Peter Steinkamp), on the Tuskegee syphilis study (James H Jones), and on American cold war research on flash burn in preparation for a feared nuclear attack (Susan Lederer). The general conclusion that arises from all these papers is obvious: war, racism, and scientific opportunism were the key factors that led, often in combination, to exploitation of human subjects and disregard for consent (even where and when official guidelines on information and consent requirements had been issued, as in the German Reich in 1931). Beyond this insight, what can the future historiography of human experimentation contribute? Paul Weindling's essay, focusing on the victims of Nazi medical experimentation, rightly complains that most of the historical research in this area has been perpetrator-oriented so far. His call for more attention to be paid to the fate of human subjects mirrors, perhaps unwittingly, recent trends in philosophy towards a patient- or victim-centred conception of ethics. Finally, David Rothman, reflecting on the debate of the 1990s about the standards of human trials on AIDS treatment and prevention in developing countries, makes clear that the achievements of ethical codes, such as those of Nuremberg and Helsinki, are under threat in contexts of socio-economic hardship. Historical analysis, one may conclude, may well warn against an ethical relativism that is prepared to compromise on standards of human subject research in situations of poverty and medical need. Eckart's volume has made a significant contribution to this historical enterprise.

The history of biological warfare: Human experimentation, modern nightmares and lone madmen in the twentieth century

The history of biological warfare: Human experimentation, modern nightmares and lone madmen in the twentieth century

Britain and biological warfare: expert advice and science policy, 1930-65

Acknowledgements Acronyms and Abbreviations Biological Warfare and Scientific Expertise Bacteriological Warfare as a Public Health Threat Hankey's Step Further The Growth of Biological Warfare Research Project Red Admiral Trials for Biological Warfare The Drift of Biological Weapons Policy A New Threat Making Threats Appendix Outline Chronology Bibliography Index

An educational imperative: The role of ethical codes and normative prohibitions in CBW-Applicable research.

This paper examines the role of ethics in research with potential applicability to chemical and biological warfare. If focuses upon biological warfare research, and examines the ethical dilemmas faced by those working with dual-use potential technologies. It discusses the normative, legal and ethical prohibitions against participation in chemical and biological warfare programmes from a Western perspective. It examines the motivations of individuals participating in CBW research and concludes with recommendations for increasing awareness about ethical and normative prohibitions. An appendix lists the results of a survey of ethical codes in relevant scientific disciplines conducted via the Internet.

Simulants, stimulants and diseases: The evolution of the United States biological warfare programme, 1945–60

Details about the US biological programme have largely been based on information in the open literature. More revealing aspects of the programme are now available through documents released under the Freedom of Information Act. Annual reports of the activities of the US Army Chemical Corps from 1945 to 1959 have revealed significant increases in activity in biological warfare research. The Corps research activity progressed from work on anthrax in 1941, through anti‐crop agents in the mid‐1940s, to a wider range of animal, plant and human diseases by 1960. A number of disease organisms were investigated sufficiently to permit some standardisation and manufacture of munitions.

Biological warfare against crops.

List of Figures List of Tables Preface Acknowledgements Glossary Introduction Iraqi and the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) A Study of Disease in Plants Anti-Crop Biological Warfare and the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) The Context of US Biological Warfare Research and Development Aspects of Anti-Crop Biological Warfare Activity, France, Germany, and Japan Post-World War Two United States Anti-Crop Biological Warfare Some Aspects of UK and US Anti-Crop Warfare Collaboration Between 1943 and 1958 Munitions for Anti-Crop BW Agents Targets Conclusions Related International Prohibitions and Controls on Dangerous Plant Diseases Appendices Notes Bibliography Index

Biologists under Hitler

Part 1 The expulsion and emigration of scientists, 1933-1939 - a brief summary of legal measures non-Aryan dismissals and emigrations political dismissals and emigrations the impact of the expulsion of biologists on research in germany Viktor Hamburger and Johannes Holtfreter: the expulsion of two eminent experimental embryologists dismissed biologists able to continue their work in Germany Karl von Frisch, the Mischling, and the solidarity of his colleagues the return of emigre biologists to scientific institutes in germany after 1945 Wiedergutmachung in public and civil service Gerta von Ubisch: the emigration and return of a professor. Part 2 NSDAP membership, careers, and research funding - NSDAP membership the significance of NSDAP membership for habilitation and appointments the chair in zoology in Munster, 1935-1937 biology: the example of Ernst Lehmann the Notgemeinschaft (Emergency Association) of German science, the German research association, and the Reich Research Council under national socialism funding for biological projects by the DFG and the RFR, 1933-1945, and the significance of NSDAP membership research funding for biologists at universities and Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes research funding and the quality of research funding according to individuals and specialities the political and ideological background to research funding. Part 3 The content and result of research at universities - botany zoology Konrad Lorenz, ethology, and national socialist racial doctrine. Part 4 The content and result of research at Kaiser Wilhelm Institutes - the KWI for biology, Berlin-Dahlem the division for virus research of the KWIs for biology and biochemistry, Berlin-Dahlem the KWI for cultivated plant research, Tuttenholf the KWI for breeding research (Erwin Baur Institute), Muncheberg the genetic department of the KWI for brain research, Berlin-Buch the KWI for biophysics, Franfurt the department of hereditary pathology of the KWI for anthropology, human genetics, and eugenics, Berlin-Dahlem: the example of Hans Nachtsheim. Part 5 Scientific research by the SS - the scientific interests of Heinrich Himmler The SS Research and Teaching Society Das Ahnenerbe Heinz Brucher at the Ahnenerbe's Institute for plant genetic, Lannach Eduard May at the Ahnenerbe's entomological Institute, Dachau SS research at the University of Jena: Gerhard Heberer, human origins, and the Nordic race. Part 6 Research to develop biological weapons - the working group Blitzableiter biological warfare research under deputy Reich physician Fuhrer Kurt Blome. (Part contents).

Biological Warfare in the Twentieth Century: Lessons from the Past, Challenges for the Future

Biological warfare and fear of biological warfare have affected our wars, our peace, and our research throughout this century. During World War I, animals were deliberately infected with glanders. During World War II, biowarfare research was carried out by Japan, Germany, England, and the United States. Japan carried out biological warfare attacks in China. England used biological warfare for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. In the 1950s and 1960s, Army researchers released bacteria over U.S. cities in biological warfare tests. The most frequent biological warfare terrorist episodes have been contamination of food and water. Although biological warfare can be very low tech, genetic engineering is capable of making biowarfare agents available in vast quantities. Biowarfare research should continue, but the National Institutes of Health should oversee human biological warfare research.

Japanese biological warfare research on humans: a case study of microbiology and ethics.

Japanese biological warfare research on humans: a case study of microbiology and ethics.

Wickham steed and German biological warfare research

(1992). Wickham steed and German biological warfare research. Intelligence and National Security: Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 379-402.

Preventing A Biological Arms Race, by Susan Wright

This timely sourcebook presents essential technical, political, legal, and historical background needed for informed judgments about recent expansion of military interest in life sciences particularly in weapons potential of new biotechnology. Beyond providing a history and analysis of trends in these areas, Preventing a Biological Arms Race also develops case for strengthening national and international commitments to biological disarmament and proposes courses of action to achieve this goal. In theory, Susan Wright observes, the menace of biological warfare should no longer be with us. Developing, producing, and stockpiling biological weapons are unconditionally banned by international treaty. EastWest military rivalry and confrontations in Middle East have eroded confidence in treaty regime, however. The advent of genetic engineering and other new biotechnologies has revived military interest in biological weaponry, generating concern about potential weapons applications of biological research. The 15 contributions by experts from a wide range of disciplines include a history of U.S. biological warfare policy, analysis of ethical issues posed by defensive biological warfare research, case studies of alleged violations of international legal regime prohibiting biological weapons, reviews of that regime, and proposals for strengthening barriers to biological warfare. A series of 14 appendices collect important data and documents related to biological weapons. Susan Wright is a historian of science at Residential College of University of Michigan where she directs Science and Society Program. This book was prepared underthe sponsorship of Council for Responsible Genetics.

The Matrix of Biological Disarmament: Strategy, Law, and Technology

During this century strategy, law, and technology have worked to the distinct advantage of biological arms control over weapons proliferation. Reliable strategies for biological warfare were never formulated. Customary and treaty law severely constrained use of biological weapons. Advances in technology were inadequate to overcome moral and tactical objections to disease as an instrument of war. As the first treaty prohibiting possession of an entire category of weapons, the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention signalled the apparent achievement of biological disarmament.Subsequently, the rise of genetic engineering and renewal of superpower hostility engendered fear that biological disarmament was threatened by technological advances in biological weapons promoting their increased military utility. Neither the recent past nor the foreseeable future justify such fear. Instead, there is now the opportunity to entirely eliminate biological warfare research, to extend disarmament to chemical weapons, and to redirect resources to the global war against disease.