AN UNHEALTHY CONSUMPTION

During the 1900s, inmates were oftentimes victims of unethical experimentation conducted by medical professionals. In exchange, they would be granted their freedom. During the 20th century, correctional establishments doubled in size causing mistreatment and lack of consent to increase. Inmates were oftentimes bound to chains in cellars and closets, endured physical abuse, were left naked, and lived in unsanitary conditions.

This led to the swallowing stool experiment conducted during the mid-1940s in New York State Vocation Institute in West Coxsackie, NY. This institute was a well-known brutalizing reformatory prison for male offenders and aimed to turn men into law-abiding citizens. The men who hesitantly signed up to be in this experiment swallowed unfiltered stool suspension due to researchers at the time studying a deadly stomach bug that was spreading. The goal was to figure out how well the disease spread that way as opposed to having the victims inhale its components.

The men were fed through small tubes, and many of them vomited almost instantly. The inmates grew sick because of the ingested bacteria and had symptoms of diarrhea, incredible abdominal pain, and fever. After a week and a half, the victims recovered. It was concluded by medical researchers that swallowing stool was a more effective way to transmit the virus at hand. It is not certain whether the men were rewarded for their participation.

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References: 

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Batch, M. (2019). History: Prison condition. Center For Prison Reform. Retrieved February 12, 2023, from https://centerforprisonreform.org/history/

Chase. (2020). We Are Not Slaves: State Violence, Coerced Labor, and Prisoners’ Rights in Postwar America. The University of North Carolina Press.

Parsons. (2018). From Asylum to Prison: Deinstitutionalization and the Rise of Mass Incarceration after 1945. The University of North Carolina Press. https://doi.org/10.5149/9781469640655_parsons

PRESS, M. S. T. H. E. A. S. S. O. C. I. A. T. E. D. (2011). Tests infected the unsuspecting. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette. https://www.telegram.com/story/news/local/north/2011/02/28/tests-infected-unsuspecting/50181329007/