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Operation Paperclip et al



Don't forget Japanese Unit 731, all the scientists involved were whisked away to the US if they would give up their research on human subjects to the US military and help translate.


Is any of that declassified now? Did we actually learn anything other than 'causing pain causes pain'?


there's a lot of "these are some tested to failure limits for humans" results that are of use in medical settings, but they aren't really needed and end up being more of a "fatal dose" style measure.

The most used one I've heard about is studying hypothermia because they took quite detailed notes on the different stages and how the body reacted.


Years ago I read a blog post by a Jewish doctor who was trying to do hypothermia research without relying on Nazi data. His ultimate conclusion was that it was not reasonable to discard this data, because treatment would be very inadequate without it. It would unnecessarily hurt people today to give lesser care, and it would not be a positive testament to the memory of those victims to throw it all away.

I haven't been able to find that blog post again, but I often think about it and would love to bookmark it.

It's in a similar vein of ethical question to embryonic stem cell treatments, but certainly with very different aspects between them.


That's definitely my belief with it too, and it wasn't a blog but I remember a history teacher in high school pointed me at a couple similar papers when I expressed discomfort that we'd use such horrific research.




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