BEYOND OUR BORDERS
As legal restrictions limited options in the United States, many took the opportunity to test possible options in other sovereign nations. This largely took place in the "global south."
PLEASE NOTE: Images and descriptions displayed in this museum may be disturbing for some viewers.
Discretion advised.
U.S. BIOLOGICAL LAB BEHIND BARS IN BILIBID
The vulnerable prison population at Bilibid Prison in Manilla were the test subjects for a series of experiments involving life threatening diseases.
[Image: Phillippine Sociological Review (2012). The Prison Hospital in Bilibid, 1911. A two story building with 8 windows on the front side and 6 windows on the left side.]
ONE RADIOACTIVE ACCIDENT & MANY CONSEQUENCES
After a hydrogen bomb test goes awry at Bikini Atoll, the people of the Marshall Islands soon finds themselves subjected to an experiment where scientists observed the effects of radiation coursing through their bodies and the health problems that come along with it.
[image: Mydans, Carl, (1946). Some adults and some children sitting down all together.]
AIDS IN AFRICA (AZT):
BUDGET BEFORE TREATMENT
AZT was drug used to prevent pregnant women with AIDS from passing the virus to their child. Due to high cost of AZT, trials were conducted with aims for a cheaper AZT regimen for countries in Africa.
[image: Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, 2014. Mother holding her infant, while a white health professional does an examination.]
PSYCHIC DRIVING
Donald Ewen Cameron, a scientist in Canada funded by the CIA under project MK Ultra, conducted experiments originally intended to treat schizophrenia. These experiments, however, soon took the shape of Psychic Driving, a procedure intended to repattern a subject’s personality.
[Image: An often-circulated image portraying a young girl between the ages of 8 and 10 years old who allegedly underwent treatment of LSD, electroshock, and sensory deprivation as part of MK Ultra Subproject 68. This image’s original source is difficult to determine.]
U.S. SYPHILIS STUDY IN GUATEMALA
Although syphilis is not very prevalent in our society today, it once plagued many populations in the United States, especially within the military. Finding a treatment for this STD was crucial, but did we go too far?
[Image: Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, Innoculation subjects for syphilis experiment in Guatemala.]
1996 PFIZER DRUG TRIALS
In 1996, the US relied on Pfizer to aid Nigeria in an over three months-long meningitis epidemic. Unbeknownst to Nigeria, Pfizer's influence would lead to the unethical death of Nigerian children and a permanent distrust towards vaccinations and Western medicine.
[image: The Patriot, 2016. The Trovan I.V. (Alatrofloxacin Injection) used by Pfizer in Drug Trials in Nigeria.]
AN EYE FOR AN EYE
The amount of eye trauma in war has increased with the further development of weapons, but what has stayed the same are the disparities in treatment for local civilians and United States Soldiers.
[Image: Niedringhaus, A. Atlantic Photographer, 2013. Title. Afghan men walk through the debris of a school destroyed by coalition forces.]
YELLOW FEVER IN CUBA
In the late 1900s, the poor community of Cuba was involved in a trial to uncover knowledge about the deadly disease yellow fever and the mosquitoes that carried it.
[image: National Library of Medicine/Science Photo Library, 2018. Image of a town being fumigated to protect from yellow fever.]