Beyond Skin

U of Penn must make amends for its medical experiments

by A. Bernard Ackerman and M.D

These are facts: Between 1951 and 1974, Albert M. Kligman, M.D., Ph.D., a professor in the department of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania, published, in numerous reputable medical journals, the results of "research" he carried out, with the assistance mightily of residents in dermatology and even of some medical students, at Holmesburg Prison in Philadelphia (where inmates acted not only as "test subjects," but as managers and supervisors of the experiments) and at homes for mentally defective children in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

These are facts: Among the many hundreds, perhaps thousands, of experiments conducted under the aegis of the University of Pennsylvania, many were patently deleterious, physically and often psychologically, to test subjects, the evidence for that being set forth here now in but a few examples of "research" conducted at Holmesburg Prison and at institutions for children who were mentally defective, all of it having been published. Among the experiments at Holmesburg were administration of psychoactive and hallucinogenic drugs (some of those chemicals leading to incapacitation), injections of tritiated thymidine (a radioactive substance that was not approved by the Atomic Energy Commission for use by "researchers" at Holmesburg), and experiments with dioxin (the carcinogen in Agent Orange). At the state institution in Pennhurst, Pa., the Vineland State School and the Woodbine State Colony -- all facilities for "mentally defective" children -- experiments included induction of fungal and viral infections, sensitization of previously unsensitized children to the allergen of poison ivy and studies of the effects of androgens and corticosteroids given systemically for the purpose of assessing their effects on sebaceous glands.

So enthusiastic about the experiments on vulnerable populations was the chairman of the department of dermatology at Penn during the 1950s, Donald M. Pillsbury, that he wrote to Dr. Thomas Francis, president of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, on behalf of "proposed study" by Kligman as follows: "[It] would be an effort to determine short- and long-term effects of ionizing radiation on human skin under conditions of strict control. The subjects to be used principally would be idiots and feeble-minded children permanently committed to a home in New Jersey." During the past several decades, trenchant criticisms have been directed at the University of Pennsylvania for what many have perceived to be its complicity in the abuse of man. Many of those abuses were recorded by Allen Hornblum in his well-researched volume, Acres of Skin, published in 1998. What has been the response of the University of Pennsylvania and of Dr. Kligman to those serious charges? This is what Richard L. Tannen, M.D., senior vice dean of the medical school, had to say in a letter to the Archives of Dermatology in 2000:

"In 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 The University of Pennsylvania has apologized publicly to the former inmates who think they may have sustained long-term harm as a result of the experiments at Holmesburg Prison, Philadelphia, Pa."

To the best of my knowledge, there never has been a formal apology by the University of Pennsylvania to either the inmates at Holmesburg Prison or to the families of children who were retarded mentally. In May 2003, in an interview with Dermatology Times, Kligman claimed that the accusations against him were "preposterous" and denied that any harm had been done by his experiments. He asserted that inmates of Holmesburg Prison were used for studies concerning "dandruff, athlete's foot and acne," but he failed to mention studies performed on them such as those just catalogued here. Kligman asserted further that the accusation of his having abused human beings in medical experiments "doesn't have the slightest interest for me."

Is it not time, at long last, for the University of Pennsylvania to stop its stonewalling? Is it not time that, at the very least, an authentic apology, so long owed, be made to the prisoners of Holmesburg who are still alive and to the families of children at homes for the retarded? Is it not proper that compensation be offered to the university's victims? And would it not be appropriate for the university to educate, especially its medical students, about unconscionable behavior in regard to defenseless populations in general and to prisoners and children defective mentally in particular? Respect for the oath of Hippocrates and the code of Nuremberg require that Penn, at long last, restore its good name and that of the noble, learned profession it represents.

Dr. Ackerman, director of the Ackerman Academy of Dermatopathology in New York City, was a resident in the department of dermatology at Penn between July 1966 and July 1967 during which time did "research" under the direction of Dr. Kligman at Holmesburg Prison. If you would like to respond to this Slant or have one of your own (850 words), contact Howard Altman, City Paper editor in chief, 123 Chestnut St., third floor, Phila., PA 19106 or e-mail altman@citypaper.net.