7 Cruelest Human Experiments

When Dr. Josef Mengele arrived at Auschwitz as a medical researcher and doctor in 1943, he enjoyed the "selection" process for prisoner transports. If Mengele was working, he sorted new arrivals methodically to the left or right. Those sent right entered the camp and survived, at least briefly. Those sent left faced extermination in the gas chambers within hours.

Even off-duty, Mengele attended the railroad platform as trains arrived. He sought out twins and others with unusual physical traits, like dwarves or giants. Twins held special importance for Mengele; he exploited them most. If Mengele found twins "valuable" for research, he let them keep their clothes and hair. If no experiments occurred, he allowed the twins basic schooling and soccer.

However, Mengele routinely took twins' blood. He painfully extracted blood from the necks of small children. Mengele carefully checked, measured, and recorded physical sizes. If the measurements failed to satisfy him, Mengele decided a set of twins lacked the necessary height or physical fitness and sent them to the gas chamber.

Mengele fixated on blue eyes. Children received painful eye drops or injections of various substances to change their eye color, which proved useless and toxic. He injected one twin with tuberculosis, typhus, or other diseases, but not the other. Eventually, both twins received heart injections with phenolic acid for euthanasia. Mengele then meticulously autopsied their bodies. Spinal taps and spinal experiments happened without anesthesia. Other complex surgeries, including amputations, organ removal, and castration, occurred without anesthesia.

One survivor described the process Mengele enacted upon his brother:

One day, Dr. Mengele took my twin brother, Tibi, for special experiments. Mengele showed more interest in Tibi, perhaps because he was the older twin. Mengele performed several operations on Tibi. One spine surgery left my brother paralyzed; he could not walk. They then removed his sexual organs. After the fourth operation, I never saw Tibi again. I cannot express how I felt. Words fail to describe it. They took my father, my mother, my two older brothers—and now, my twin.

Josef Mengele added mystique to his status as a top 20th-century criminal. He evaded capture and died of natural causes in Brazil in 1979.

The subject is John B. Watson in the list '7 Cruelest Human Experiments'."Little Albert" experiment.John Watson and Rosalie Rayner conducted the "Little Albert" experiment in 1920. They placed a nine-month-old infant on a mattress and let the child play with a white rat.

A steel bar struck by a hammer hit the infant's back whenever it touched the rat. This happened until the child cried and feared the hammer's sound. Then, the child only saw the white rat, causing the same crying, fear, and distress. This reaction also happened when the child saw many furry things, including a rabbit, a dog, and a Santa Claus mask.

Psychologists stopped using "Little Albert" subjects within months. Watson and Rayner made no follow-up initially. Since no attempt made to desensitize him, psychologists focused on what happened to the infant and if he was permanently affected. Two people were potentially identified as "Little Albert," but his exact identity and fate remain disputed.

"False Memory Implantation" is a reckless technique American psychiatrists and psychologists used under therapy pretenses. This method creates memories of terrible experiences, abuse, trauma, and fear using hypnosis and other persuasive methods. Patients start to believe these fabricated memories are real.

Nadean Cool, a Wisconsin woman, was a famous case of "False Memory Implantation." In 1986, she sought therapy for a traumatic event with her daughter. She later believed she belonged to a Satanic cult, was assaulted, and witnessed a friend's murder. She also thought she had 120 identities, including angels and animals, and suffered childhood abuse.

Her psychiatrist performed exorcisms on Nadean Cool using chanting and holy water. Nadean Cool later learned her memories were implanted by her psychiatrist and sued him for malpractice. Her experience is odd, but not unique.

Japanese surgeon general Shiro Ishii headed Unit 731 during WWII. Unit 731 performed shocking procedures. The unit focused on biological and chemical warfare. Unit 731 operated in occupied China. It held up to 400 prisoners. These prisoners often included POWs.

Unit 731 victims endured terrible pain. They faced anthrax, cholera, and flamethrowers. Staff routinely performed amputations, bizarre transplants, and vivisections without anesthesia. Ishii often asked staff how many logs fell each day; "logs" meant human beings. After the war, Ishii and his staff traded their biological research for freedom from the US government. The US accepted the offer, and Ishii avoided blame. He died naturally in 1959.

Dr. Lauretta Bender became a leading psychiatrist studying autism and schizophrenia. People hailed her as a pioneer. Her methods, using electroshock and large LSD doses on children, now seem unethical and shocking. One patient recounted an experiment he faced at age six:

(In 1944) My mother was locked in a mental hospital before I was born, and I lived in a state ward. A psychiatrist at Bellevue Hospital in New York, Dr. Lauretta Bender, started her notorious shock treatment experiments on children and needed more subjects. They diagnosed me as 'childhood schizophrenic.' They took me from my foster parents and gave me 20 shock treatments. I was dragged down the hall crying, hiding a handkerchief in my mouth so I wouldn't bite my tongue.

After the shock treatment, I woke up disoriented. I did not know my location or identity. Four months later, I returned to my foster home. The treatment changed me. I went from a shy boy who read in a corner to a terrified child who clung to his foster mother and cried. I could not recall my teachers. I could not remember the little boy I was told was my best friend. I could not find my way in my neighborhood. The social worker who visited monthly told my foster parents my memory loss stemmed from mental illness. Months later, they sent me to a state hospital for ten years.

Dr. Bender also used LSD on patients. She gave the drug in large amounts daily for up to six weeks to pre-teens and young teenagers. No one at her workplace questioned her work or raised ethical worries. Her methods fit the cultural trends and norms of her time. She died in 1987; her obituary in theNew York Times failed to mention any of her ethical violations.The New York Times failed to mention any of her ethical transgressions.

The Tuskegee Experiment studied untreated syphilis in African-American men starting in 1932. The study's goal was to track the course of untreated syphilis in 400 African-American men from Macon County, AL, throughout their lives.

Urban legend claims healthy Black men received syphilis injections. The recruited men already had the disease. Researchers did not tell them. Instead, they told subjects they had "bad blood" or "fatigue." The US Public Health Service conducted this study with the Tuskegee Institute. The study offered free medical care and burial costs if a subject died during the study.

Subjects received little care and underwent many blood extractions and spinal taps for research material. Even during World War II, the USPHS stopped subjects from getting penicillin after they asked to enlist. The USPHS continued this practice well into the 1950s.

A whistleblower revealed the study in 1972. The Department of HEW shut down the study then. Seventy-four original subjects lived. One hundred people died from untreated syphilis. In 1992, a class action suit led to $40,000 and an apology from President Bill Clinton for survivors.

The "Monster" study tested stuttering children at an Iowa orphanage in 1939. Speech pathologist and psychologist Wendell Johnson administered the test. The study assessed the psychological and physical parts of stuttering. Researchers selected two groups of about 10 children. Both stutterers and non-stutterers joined each group. The goal was to give therapy to stutterers and cause stuttering in children who could speak clearly. Clinicians repeatedly told children their speech was impaired during one-on-one interviews.

Children aged five to twelve developed speech problems quickly after a few sessions. They also showed behavioral and social issues. Some Johnson's associates found the methods and results appalling, leading to the study's name. Johnson never published his findings formally, though they stayed public at the University of Iowa. An investigative reporter uncovered the truth in 2001.The San Jose Mercury-News wrote extensively about the incident, which brought public scrutiny to the study.Six orphans sued the state of Iowa one after another. Five of those six received six-figure settlements in 2007.