Experimental hepatitis vaccine administered at a school for children with developmental disabilities.
Date: 1958
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."