A group
of nearly 300 former prisoners
at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia has filed a civil suit against the
University and Dr. Albert M. Kligman Gr’42 M’47 Int’51,
emeritus professor of dermatology, for carrying out experiments on them
between 1961 and 1974. The suit, filed in Philadelphia’s Court of
Common Pleas in October, accuses Kligman and Penn of “negligence,
carelessness, and recklessness” in “allowing infectious diseases,
radioactive isotopes, dioxin, and psychotropic drugs” to be tested
on the former prisoners “without their knowledge.” The prisoners
also named the City of Philadelphia, Dow Chemical Company, the Johnson
& Johnson pharmaceutical firm, and Kligman’s Ivy Research Laboratories
in their suit.
Some
of the experiments led to the development of the anti-wrinkle cream Retin-A,
from which both Kligman and the University have benefited financially.
(The University itself sued Kligman and Johnson & Johnson, and in
1992 won a percentage of the profits from Retin-A.) The ex-inmates’
suit seeks in excess of $50,000 in damages for each charge.
Although
the prisoners were paid to participate in the experiments—some of
which may have caused lasting physical and/or psychological injuries—the
suit argues that they were both “grossly” underpaid and under-informed
about the potential dangers. It also states that the experiments were
poorly supervised and controlled, and that both Penn and Kligman failed
to exercise “responsible care, caution, diligence, and prudence”
in allowing the prisoners to be “tested with toxic chemicals and
medications in doses beyond scientifically acceptable standards.”
“We
think these individuals are entitled to an apology by the parties, including
the University, the city and Kligman, who made a lot of money literally
from the backs of these individuals,” said Thomas M. Nocella, an
attorney representing the former prisoners. “We’re also looking
for some compensation, and a guarantee of future medical treatment for
these men and women.” He said the experiments showed a “repeated
pattern of human-rights violations.”
In
a statement, the University noted that “during the 1950s and 1960s,
the use of willing, compensated prisoners for biomedical research was
a commonly accepted practice by this nation’s scientists—most
of whom were associated with major universities or the federal government.
It is now understood and agreed throughout the global scientific community
that prisoners—regardless of their consent to participate and/or
receipt of monies for same—cannot be considered appropriate candidates
for any biomedical studies.”
Today,
the statement added, “the scientific community—including the
University of Pennsylvania—operates within a system of strict rules
and regulations concerning the use of human subjects in research. As part
of the current framework governing such university-based research, formally
established bodies known as Institutional Review Boards—which consist
of scientists, ethicists, and members of the local community—review
all proposed research involving human subjects for compliance with an
array of ethical and other considerations.”
“Their
institution has a legacy, and this legacy carries on even into today,”
responded Nocella, “and they’re morally obligated to answer
to wrongs that institutions did even a long time ago. They can’t
use the excuse of the passage of time. It was wrong then and it’s
wrong now. The Nuremberg Code was in existence for 20 years before they
started doing this. The moral and ethical ideas were out there. It’s
a matter of basic human rights and humanity towards other human beings.”
Nocella also noted that “a lot of testing was
done without prior testing on lab animals, so in effect, these people
were guinea pigs.”
On
November 2, some of the former inmates demonstrated at a lecture that
Kligman was giving at the Biomedical Research Building II. Some carried
signs calling Penn the “Frankenstein of medical research” and
asking why it had honored Kligman by choosing him as a speaker.
The
experiments were documented in a 1998 book titled Acres of Skin: Human
Experiments at Holmesburg Prison: A true story of abuse and exploitation
in the name of medical science, by Allen M. Hornblum, an instructor
of geography and urban studies at Temple University.
