- 2 days ago
Throughout history, there have been human experiments so disturbing and unethical that they still shock the world today. In this video, we uncover 20 of the most horrifying experiments ever conducted, exposing the dark side of medical and psychological research.
These real-life stories will leave you questioning how far humans can go in the name of science.
These real-life stories will leave you questioning how far humans can go in the name of science.
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00:00At the study's conclusion, only 74 of the original 600 men were still alive.
00:06Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most horrific experiments done in the name of science.
00:13Mengele was known as the Angel of Death.
00:18He wanted to improve the stock of the Aryan race.
00:23The Aversion Project.
00:24Levine made numerous TV appearances, but in public he said little.
00:30About his trademark therapy.
00:32Targeting a group of people for something beyond their control is cruel enough.
00:36Subjecting them to torture under the guise of fixing them is even more insidious.
00:41The Aversion Project in South Africa had one goal.
00:44Quote-unquote, curing people of being gay.
00:47For nearly 20 years, countless victims were put through increasingly painful electroshock therapy.
00:53When that didn't work, they moved on to more extreme tactics, like chemical castration and even surgery.
00:59Hundreds were forcibly operated on, with many surgeries left incomplete by the time the project ended in 1989.
01:06The horrific experiment left lasting psychological scars on the victims, many of whom ultimately took their own lives.
01:14In 2014, Aubrey Levin, the man behind the project, was sentenced to five years in prison.
01:20I would almost call him psychopathic.
01:22He has no sense of other people's humanity.
01:26He was this person with a huge amount of power, and he did what he wanted with it.
01:32Henrietta Lacks.
01:33While medical breakthroughs benefit many, they sometimes come at the expense of a few.
01:37Or in this case, just one person.
01:40Henrietta Lacks was only 31 when she passed from cervical cancer.
01:44But her cells lived on, without her or her family knowing.
01:48Before she died, two samples were taken without her consent.
01:52And it was discovered that her cells were able to survive for long periods.
01:56Because there had been this enormous effort to grow cells outside the body for 100 years.
02:01Because we just really didn't know a lot about cells at that point.
02:04And in response to all of his colleagues asking for them, George Guy sent them to anyone who wanted to use them for research.
02:12And they spread around the world this way really fast.
02:14Since then, scientists have used them to make several important discoveries about cancer.
02:19This, however, led to her family's medical records being leaked and relatives harassed for blood samples.
02:25It wasn't until 2023, over 70 years later, that her family received compensation.
02:31Her family sued multi-billion dollar Thermo Fisher Scientific in 2021, saying the company, quote,
02:37made staggering profits by using the HeLa cell line, although it, quote,
02:41has known that HeLa cells were stolen from Ms. Lacks.
02:44To this day, Lacks' cells, and the ethical debate around using them, still live on.
02:50Feeding children radioactive oatmeal.
02:53What hot breakfast is as easy and fast to prepare as Quaker oats?
02:57Some researchers will go to any length to get the results they need, including targeting vulnerable populations.
03:03Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center was originally established to care for children with developmental disabilities.
03:10But instead, they subjected them to secret tests.
03:13Between 1946 and 1953, the center fed dozens of boys with oatmeal laced with radioactive elements,
03:19in an experiment sponsored by Quaker Oats.
03:22That's why your family gets that wonderful stick-to-the-ribs feeling with Quaker Oats.
03:26That wonderful feeling of well-being.
03:28These children were misled into thinking they were part of a science club,
03:32and were given incentives to encourage their participation.
03:35However, neither them nor their families knew the true extent of the trials.
03:40While the radiation doses were low,
03:42the unethical use of children who were already at a disadvantage was condemned,
03:47and the victims finally received justice in 1998.
03:52Kamara
03:52The Cold War may have spurred advancements in various scientific fields,
03:57but some of that research was more insidious in nature.
04:00Prisoners in Soviet gulags were subject to extreme suffering,
04:04with some being sent to Kamara, a lab dedicated to testing poisons.
04:09These were prisoners who had been declared enemies of the people, and so were considered expendable.
04:14Established in 1921, the facility exposed countless victims to various lethal substances,
04:20like mustard gas, ricin, and cyanide.
04:23It was in the late 30s or 40s that the poison program would really flourish.
04:28That was the era of a Soviet biochemist named Gregory Myronovsky,
04:32a man who developed poisons and tested them out on hundreds, if not thousands, of people.
04:36Some of them were given a deadly cocktail that killed them within 15 minutes.
04:41Despite these horrors, those responsible were never brought to justice,
04:45even after the Soviet Union dissolved and the lab was shut down.
04:49There are claims that Kamara was reopened a few years later,
04:52meaning these horrific tests could still be occurring today.
04:56Human Vivisections of Herophilus
04:58Human experimentation has been a part of medicine since its very inception.
05:03As an early pioneer of human anatomy,
05:05Herophilus made several discoveries about the brain,
05:08eye, and the vascular system that are still supported by scientists today.
05:12However, these breakthroughs may have been achieved through unethical and violent means.
05:17Some have alleged that he would vivisect convicted criminals live,
05:22with the help of his associate, Erisostratus,
05:24a method that was seen as controversial even back then.
05:27It is believed that hundreds of unwilling participants were subjected to Herophilus' dissections.
05:33Although his work has been undoubtedly vital to modern anatomical research,
05:37knowing how he went about it casts his accomplishments in a much darker light.
05:42Dr. Leo Stanley's San Quentin Prison Experiments
05:45Chief surgeon at San Quentin, Dr. Leo Stanley,
05:48used prisoners for various experiments from 1913 to 1951,
05:53some verging into dark territory.
05:55These experiments included sterilization and possibly finding treatments for Spanish flu.
06:02A strong supporter of eugenics,
06:04Stanley performed vasectomies on inmates who were sold on the idea of better health,
06:09reformed behavior, and a stronger sex drive.
06:12In one project that aimed to find a source of, quote,
06:15rejuvenation,
06:16Stanley used live prisoners for surgery that transplanted testicles,
06:20human or otherwise.
06:22The experiment began with testicles sourced from executed prisoners.
06:26But when the supply ran dry,
06:28Dr. Stanley began using boar and goat testes in his work.
06:32Puerto Rico birth control pill trials.
06:35In 1956, contraceptive pills, 20 times as strong as the ones used today,
06:40were first tested among Puerto Rican women who lived in government housing projects.
06:45Birth control is still relatively new, and as such, is far from perfect.
06:49Before it could be marketed to the population, it first had to be tested,
06:53leading to one of the biggest controversies in recent medical history.
06:56In the 1950s, trials began in Puerto Rico,
07:00targeting impoverished, often undereducated women.
07:03They were given the contraceptives without being informed of potential side effects,
07:07resulting in several participants being caught off guard.
07:10I took the pot of the pastillas,
07:12and I took one, and I didn't have a bad stomach.
07:16So, when I took the pastillas, I felt that the world went on,
07:19and the view was like, I could say.
07:22The symptoms ranged from vomiting to menstrual irregularities,
07:26with some even being hospitalized.
07:28Their concerns were ignored for the sake of the study,
07:31causing the deaths of three people.
07:33Despite all of the negative responses, the pill was still approved,
07:36and those side effects still affect women to this day.
07:41The Boston Project.
07:42Working with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1953 to 1957,
07:47Dr. William Sweet, who was the chief neurosurgeon
07:50at Harvard's Massachusetts General Hospital,
07:52gave uranium injections to 11 cancer patients,
07:56and it turned out to be even more lethal than I realized.
08:00These individuals were already terminally ill,
08:03with all but one reportedly suffering from brain tumors.
08:06Dr. Sweet was interested in learning how the distribution of uranium affected the body,
08:10and whether it could be used to treat tumors.
08:13In 1995, under testimony,
08:16Dr. Sweet claimed he had the consent from his patients for his experiments.
08:19However, a lack of supporting documents,
08:22as well as the case of one patient who was found unconscious and later died without regaining consciousness
08:28or being identified, makes those claims slightly dubious.
08:33University of California Experiments on Newborns
08:36Leading up to a study published in the medical journal Pediatrics,
08:40113 newborn babies,
08:43no older than three days old,
08:45were experimented on by scientists at the University of California's Department of Pediatrics in the early 1960s.
08:52Studies conducted on the babies included a battery of bizarre and seemingly unnecessary experiments regarding blood flow and pressure.
09:00In one test, over 40 babies were placed on circumcision boards and held upside down
09:05while doctors measured how their blood flowed to their head.
09:09In another, babies were placed ankle-deep in ice-cold water
09:12while the catheter was inserted into their aorta in an effort to monitor their aortic pressure.
09:18Guatemala Syphilis Study
09:20Even though the experiments were conducted more than 60 years ago,
09:24there are families still suffering the consequences.
09:26The United States has a sordid history of running scientific tests on their own citizens,
09:32but that certainly hasn't stopped them from exploiting people in other countries.
09:36In the 1940s, John Charles Cutler,
09:39the same doctor behind the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study,
09:42inflicted over a thousand Guatemalans with various venereal diseases.
09:47No one gave their consent,
09:49and they were certainly not informed that they were being infected with syphilis and gonorrhea.
09:53The unknowing subjects ranged from soldiers to orphans,
09:57and of the many afflicted, only 700 received treatment.
10:00This left the majority to suffer, with 83 people even dying.
10:05Despite the large amount of data they gathered,
10:14the findings were never published, making the victim's pain all for nothing.
10:18In 2010, the U.S. government formally apologized to Guatemala,
10:24but the victims and their families have received no compensation for their experience.
10:29The Monster Study
10:30Even the most seemingly simple tests can have lifelong consequences.
10:34In 1939, scientists from the University of Iowa conducted a trial
10:39to study the effects of stuttering on children.
10:41He developed the Monster Study to see if stuttering was not the result of biology,
10:46but of learned behavior.
10:47They sourced their subjects from orphanages,
10:50many of whom were unaware they were taking part in a study.
10:53Some already had a stutter, while others didn't.
10:56During the experiments, half of the subjects were praised for their speech pattern,
11:00while the rest were heavily derided.
11:02They were told things like,
11:03You must try to stop yourself immediately.
11:06Don't ever speak unless you can do it right.
11:08Several of the children displayed negative psychological effects,
11:12including refusal to speak and becoming extremely self-conscious.
11:15Reports show that these children became withdrawn,
11:19and some stopped speaking altogether.
11:21These children were as young as five years old.
11:24The results of the Monster Study were never published,
11:27and it only came to light in 2001 after a reporter stumbled upon the papers.
11:31The surviving subjects were finally compensated in 2007.
11:35The Stanford Prison Experiment.
11:38The study shows what happens when you put good people in a bad place.
11:43Designed by psychologist Philip Zimbardo,
11:45the goal of this 1971 experiment was to examine the psychological impact of imprisonment.
11:51For the experiment, the psychology building at Stanford University was turned into a prison,
11:55with 24 undergraduate students divided into two groups, prisoners and guards.
12:01They took their commitment to the roles to disturbing levels,
12:05with the guards doling out severe mistreatment and the prisoners accepting it.
12:09I shouted in their faces,
12:10I'm going to hit you so hard, it's going to kill your whole family.
12:14Things got so intense that some students had to be removed due to the trauma.
12:19Although the exercise was supposed to last two weeks,
12:21and had the interest of the U.S. Marine Corps and Navy,
12:25it was shut down after just six days when the repercussions of the experiment became clear.
12:30This made me feel terrible my whole life.
12:34Oh my God, right now!
12:35The Milgram Experiment.
12:37Fascinated by what motivated Nazi officers to commit atrocities during World War II,
12:42Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment
12:45to see how far Americans would go before their conscience intervened.
12:49120 volts.
12:56In the 1960s study, a teacher would read questions to a learner,
13:01who was actually an actor pretending to participate.
13:04For every wrong answer, the teacher gave what they believed was a real electric shock,
13:09gradually increasing to 450 volts.
13:12150 volts.
13:15Answer, force.
13:17Experimenter.
13:18That's all.
13:19Get me out of here.
13:19If the teachers objected, they were forced to administer it regardless.
13:23After being assured they would be free of responsibility,
13:26most complied, even when the learner screamed in agony.
13:30Two-thirds of the 40 participants went all the way to 450 volts,
13:34proving our deep-rooted tendency to obey authority,
13:38even against our own moral judgment.
13:40Please continue.
13:41People surprise you.
13:43Dr. Bender's Electroconvulsive Therapy.
13:46While working as a neuropsychiatrist at New York's Bellevue Hospital,
13:50Dr. Loretta Bender decided an effective treatment for children
13:54with developmental disorders or schizophrenia was electroconvulsive therapy,
13:58previously called electroshock therapy.
14:03Here we go.
14:07In 1947, Dr. Bender sent small electric currents through the brains of 98 children,
14:14some of whom were as young as toddlers.
14:17Another of Dr. Bender's methods for trying to alleviate schizophrenia
14:20was to give her young patients LSD.
14:23Ted Chabuzzynski was one of the children who went through the therapy
14:26when he was six years old,
14:28and he later became a human rights activist
14:30who successfully fought against the use of electroshock therapy
14:33in Berkeley, California.
14:35You're going to find it a very liberating experience
14:38to get involved in our movement
14:40and to fight against the people who have tried to crush you
14:44when you were a child.
14:45Military experiments with mustard gas during World War II.
14:49It was a painful, horrifying, and secret part of America's history
14:52during World War II.
14:54In 1943, the Navy recruited upwards of 60,000 young men for a study.
14:59Only, they weren't asked to participate.
15:01They were told.
15:02Only when they arrived at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C.
15:06did they find the real purpose of the study,
15:09to measure the effects of mustard gas and other chemicals on humans.
15:12African-American men, shown here in protective gear,
15:16as well as Japanese-American and Puerto Rican soldiers, were singled out.
15:21Locked in chambers and exposed to the deadly gas,
15:24the men involved in these experiments suffered horrible health effects,
15:27including internal and external burns.
15:30Rollins Edwards, who I interviewed in my story,
15:32he still, more than 70 years later,
15:34he still has thick scabs on his skin,
15:37which he scratches at until they bleed.
15:40Additionally, as it was a wartime experiment,
15:43they were bound by oaths of secrecy
15:45and faced dishonorable discharge or imprisonment
15:48if they spoke of the order,
15:50the details of which were not formally declassified until 1993.
15:54Unit 731
15:57Unit 731 compound is one of the most terrifying secrets in the 20th century.
16:03World War II was a hotbed for horrific human experimentation.
16:07Several countries took place in ghastly research,
16:10with victims still being affected by the testing today.
16:13Unit 731 in Japan was one of the worst.
16:16They were unrelenting, performing vivisections
16:19and testing out violent weaponry like grenades and flamethrowers on prisoners of war.
16:24The atmosphere here is still heavy with the terror and the torture of that time.
16:29They also utilized biological warfare,
16:32knowingly giving people frostbite
16:34and using animals to spread various harmful pathogens.
16:37Over 14,000 people were murdered directly,
16:40while an estimated 300,000 died as a result of disease.
16:44Even after the torture chamber was shut down,
16:47most of the main perpetrators faced only light sentences,
16:50and the government has yet to admit
16:52to the true extent of the war crimes committed.
16:54Now, claims have surfaced that Unit 731
16:57not only tested on POWs,
16:59but also on thousands of Chinese civilians.
17:02Vanderbilt University's Vitamin Drinks
17:05Following World War II,
17:07researchers at Vanderbilt University
17:08gave over 800 pregnant women
17:10a mysterious concoction they were told was a special vitamin drink.
17:15It was actually a mixture that contained doses of radioactive iron,
17:19as the scientists were testing its absorption rate during pregnancy.
17:23The radiation these women were exposed to
17:25was reportedly 30 times higher than normal.
17:28Around three to four children died of cancer or leukemia
17:31as a result of the experiment,
17:33and some mothers developed rashes,
17:35lost hair and teeth,
17:36and contracted various types of cancer themselves.
17:40In 1994, almost 40 years later,
17:43Vanderbilt University faced a lawsuit for the four-year study
17:46and was forced to pay out more than $10 million in damages.
17:51Josef Mengele's Twin Study
17:53known as the Angel of Death.
17:57He wanted to improve the stock of the Aryan race.
18:01Japan wasn't the only country committing scientific atrocities
18:04during the Second World War.
18:06The horrors carried out by Josef Mengele
18:08can only be described as evil,
18:11with some of his most twisted being conducted on twins.
18:14Mengele came around
18:15and asked for twins my mother first,
18:18and then they what to say.
18:20Second time, no.
18:21Third time, she said yes.
18:22Immediately, two adjutant grabbed us.
18:26I never even had a chance to say goodbye.
18:29Using one as the control
18:30and the other as the experimental group,
18:32he put them through torture disguised as scientific testing.
18:36His twisted methods included amputating healthy limbs,
18:40performing blood transfusions between siblings,
18:42and in some macabre cases,
18:44sewing people together to create conjoined twins.
18:48Many died as a result of these procedures,
18:50and those who survived
18:51were often slain to be studied afterwards.
18:54Out of the 1,500 tested,
18:56only 200 made it out alive,
18:58making Mengele's experiments
18:59among the deadliest in history.
19:01The world's most notorious Nazi fugitive
19:04would never answer for his crimes.
19:07The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
19:09From 1932 to 1972,
19:12600 African-American farmers from Alabama
19:15were selected for a U.S. public health service program,
19:19receiving many benefits for their cooperation.
19:22However, they were never informed
19:23that they were being studied.
19:25Of the group,
19:26399 men had syphilis,
19:29while the other 201 served as a control unit.
19:32Many of these subjects,
19:34mostly poor and illiterate sharecroppers,
19:36didn't know they were infected.
19:38Even with penicillin being developed as a cure in 1947,
19:42it was withheld from the patients.
19:44Under the false pretense of providing a special remedy,
19:47researchers performed painful and invasive spinal taps
19:50to investigate the disease's neurological consequences.
19:53Many ultimately died of syphilis,
19:55while at least 40 women contracted it from their husbands,
19:58and nearly 20 children were born with it.
20:01The study was only stopped in 1972
20:03after an information leak.
20:05At the study's conclusion,
20:07only 74 of the original 600 men were still alive.
20:11But it wasn't until 1997,
20:14when President Bill Clinton
20:15issued a formal government apology.
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20:31Project MKUltra.
20:36Officially sanctioned in 1953
20:38and backed by the CIA,
20:40this series of experiments
20:41studied the effects of mind control
20:43with methods like hypnosis,
20:45drugs, isolation, and sensory deprivation.
20:48Under the direction of infamous
20:49Scottish-American psychiatrist,
20:51Dr. Ewan Cameron,
20:52unsuspecting patients,
20:54many of whom had common ailments
20:55such as postpartum depression,
20:57were experimented on
20:58with aggressive drug cocktails
20:59and extreme techniques.
21:00The CIA enlisted the help
21:02of prisons, hospitals,
21:03and over 40 universities
21:05to perform experiments
21:06on unwitting subjects.
21:08In one of the subprojects,
21:10Operation Midnight Climax,
21:12sex workers,
21:13acting as undercover agents
21:14for the CIA,
21:16gave clients LSD,
21:17while the agency observed them
21:19through a one-way mirror.
21:21In 1973,
21:23CIA director Richard Helms
21:24ordered the destruction
21:25of all records
21:26related to MKUltra.
21:28However,
21:29subsequent investigations
21:30led by Senator Frank Church
21:32and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller,
21:34in addition to 20,000 records
21:36recovered in 1977,
21:38helped shed light on the activities.
21:40He never came out the same.
21:41He had a blank, blank look in his eye.
21:44He didn't know who we were.
21:47He didn't know we were his daughters.
21:49Which of these human-based experiments
21:51do you find the most disturbing?
21:53Let us know in the comments below.
21:55I remember looking back
21:56and seeing her arms
21:59stretched out in despair
22:00as she was pulled away.
22:04I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:07I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:07I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:08I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:09I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:09I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:10I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:11I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:11I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:12I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:13I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:14I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:15I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:16I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:17I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:18I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:19I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:20I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:21I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:22I never got to say goodbye to her.
22:23I never got to say goodbye to her.
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