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The Story of Disability Justice

Experimental hepatitis vaccine administered at a school for children with developmental disabilities.

Date: 1958

The Story of Disability Justice
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At Willowbrook State School in New York, the vaccine is tested on child residents without parental consent. In arguing for the strategy, Saul Krugman, the physician running the experiments, states: "1) Infectious hepatitis, a mild disease in children, was particularly benign in Willowbrook; 2) it was inevitable that most of the newly admitted, retarded children would acquire the disease; 3) only the Willowbrook strain of virus would be employed in these studies; and 4) facilities were available to provide isolation quarters and special medical and nursing care."