The Willowbrook Hepatitis Experiments 

What: Saul Krugman, MD, deliberately infected institutionalized children with hepatitis. 

When: 1956-1970. 

Where: Willowbrook State School, Staten Island, New York, USA. 

Details: Researchers at Willowbrook State School, a facility for children with intellectual disabilities, deliberately infected children with hepatitis to study the disease's natural history and test potential treatments. Parents were often pressured to consent to their children's participation under misleading circumstances. The researchers justified the experiments by claiming they were conducted in a setting where hepatitis was already prevalent, thus supposedly not increasing the risk to participants. 

Why and How It Was Racist: While not exclusively targeting Black individuals, the experiments exploited vulnerable children, many from marginalized communities, reflecting broader systemic abuses in medical research. The lack of proper informed consent and the exploitation of children with disabilities underscored the unethical nature of the research, which prioritized scientific inquiry over the welfare of the participants. 

Sources:
Books:
Pecorino, P. A. (n.d.). Chapter 7: Human Experimentation. In Medical Ethics . essay. Retrieved from https://www.qcc.cuny.edu/socialSciences/ppecorino/MEDICAL_ETHICS_TEXT/Chapter_7_Human_Experimentation/Case_Study_Willowbrook_Experiments.htm.
Websites:

Rosenbaum, L. (2024, February 20). The hideous truths of testing vaccines on humans. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/leahrosenbaum/2020/06/12/willowbrook-scandal-hepatitis-experiments-hideous-truths-of-testing-vaccines-on-humans/

Krugman, S. (2002, February 1). “Doctor” gives kids hepatitis. Stop racist Krugman. AMERICAN UNIVERSITY | AU Digital Research Archive. https://auislandora.wrlc.org/islandora/object/auislandora:root