Top 20 Most Disturbing Human Experiments

20-Most-Disturbing-Human-Experiments

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most horrific experiments done in the name of science.


The Aversion Project

Targeting a group of people for something beyond their control is cruel enough. Subjecting them to torture under the guise of “fixing” them is even more insidious. The Aversion Project in South Africa had one goal– “curing” people of being gay. For nearly twenty years, countless victims were put through increasingly painful electroshock therapy. When that didn’t work, they moved on to more extreme tactics, like chemical castration and even surgery. Hundreds were forcibly operated on, with many surgeries left incomplete by the time the project ended in 1989. The horrific experiment left lasting psychological scars on the victims, many of whom ultimately took their own lives. In 2014, Aubrey Levin, the man behind the project, was sentenced to five years in prison.

Henrietta Lacks

While medical breakthroughs benefit many, they sometimes come at the expense of a few– or in this case, just one person. Henrietta Lacks was only 31 when she passed from cervical cancer, but her cells lived on– without her or her family knowing. Before she died, two samples were taken without her consent, and it was discovered that her cells were able to survive for long periods. Since then, scientists have used them to make several important discoveries about cancer. This, however, led to her family’s medical records being leaked and relatives harassed for blood samples. It wasn’t until 2023 – over 70 years later – that her family received compensation. To this day, Lacks’ cells, and the ethical debate around using them, still live on.

Feeding Children Radioactive Oatmeal

Some researchers will go to any length to get the results they need– including targeting vulnerable populations. Walter E. Fernald Developmental Center was originally established to care for children with developmental disabilities. But instead, they subjected them to secret tests. Between 1946 and 1953, the center fed dozens of boys with oatmeal laced with radioactive elements, in an experiment sponsored by Quaker Oats. These children were misled into thinking they were part of a Science Club and were given incentives to encourage their participation. However, neither them nor their families knew the true extent of the trials. While the radiation doses were low, the unethical use of children who were already at a disadvantage was condemned, and the victims finally received justice in 1998.

Kamera

The Cold War may have spurred advancements in various scientific fields, but some of that research was more insidious in nature. Prisoners in Soviet Gulags were subject to extreme suffering, with some being sent to Kamera— a lab dedicated to testing poisons. Established in 1921, the facility exposed countless victims to various lethal substances like mustard gas, ricin and cyanide. Some of them were even given a deadly cocktail that killed them within 15 minutes. Despite these horrors, those responsible were never brought to justice, even after the Soviet Union dissolved and the lab was shut down. There are claims that Kamera was reopened a few years later, meaning these horrific tests could still be occurring today.

Human Vivisections of Herophilos

Human experimentation has been a part of medicine since its very inception. As an early pioneer of human anatomy, Herophilos made several discoveries about the brain, eye, and the vascular system that are still supported by scientists today. However, these breakthroughs may have been achieved through unethical and violent means. Some have alleged that he would vivisect convicted criminals live with the help of his associate Erasistratus– a method that was seen as controversial even back then. It is believed that hundreds of unwilling participants were subjected to Herophilos’ dissections. Although his work has been undoubtedly vital to modern anatomical research, knowing how he went about it casts his accomplishments in a much darker light.

Dr. Leo Stanley’s San Quentin Prison Experiments

As Chief Surgeon at San Quentin, Dr. Leo Stanley used prisoners for various experiments from 1913 to 1951 – some verging into dark territory. These experiments included sterilization and possibly finding treatments for Spanish Flu. A strong supporter of eugenics, Stanley performed vasectomies on inmates who were sold on the idea of better health, reformed behavior, and a stronger sex drive. In one project that aimed to find a source of “rejuvenation”, Stanley used live prisoners for surgery that transplanted testicles- human or otherwise. The experiment began with testicles sourced from executed prisoners, but when the supply ran dry Dr. Stanley began using boar and goat testes in his work.

Puerto Rico Birth Control Pill Trials

Birth control is still relatively new, and as such is far from perfect. Before it could be marketed to the population, it first had to be tested– leading to one of the biggest controversies in recent medical history. In the 1950s, trials began in Puerto Rico, targeting impoverished, often undereducated women. They were given the contraceptives without being informed of potential side effects, resulting in several participants being caught off guard. The symptoms ranged from vomiting to menstrual irregularities, with some even being hospitalized. Their concerns were ignored for the sake of the study, causing the deaths of three people. Despite all the negative responses, the pill was still approved– and those side effects still affect women to this day.

The Boston Project

Working with the Oak Ridge National Laboratory from 1953 to 1957, Dr. William Sweet, who was the Chief Neurosurgeon at Harvard’s Massachusetts General Hospital, gave Uranium injections to 11 cancer patients. These individuals were already terminally ill, with all but one reportedly suffering from brain tumors. Dr. Sweet was interested in learning how the distribution of Uranium affected the body and whether it could be used to treat tumors. In 1995, under testimony, Dr. Sweet claimed that he had consent from his patients for his experiments. However, a lack of supporting documents, as well as the case of one patient who was found unconscious and later died without regaining consciousness or being identified, makes those claims slightly dubious.

University of California Experiments on Newborns

Leading up to a study published in the medical journal Pediatrics, 113 newborn babies – no older than 3 days old – were experimented on by scientists at the University of California’s Department of Pediatrics in the early 1960s. Studies conducted on the babies included a battery of bizarre and seemingly unnecessary experiments regarding blood flow and pressure. In one test, over 40 babies were placed on circumcision boards and held upside down while doctors measured how their blood flowed to their head. In another, babies were placed ankle deep in ice-cold water while a catheter was inserted into their aorta in an effort to monitor their aortic pressure.

Guatemala Syphilis Study

The United States has a sordid history of running scientific tests on their own citizens– but that certainly hasn’t stopped them from exploiting people in other countries. In the 1940s, John Charles Cutler, the same doctor behind the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study inflicted over a thousand Guatemalans with various venereal diseases. The unknowing subjects ranged from soldiers to orphans, and of the many afflicted, only 700 received treatment. This left the majority to suffer, with 83 people even dying. Despite the large amount of data they gathered, the findings were never published– making the victims’ pain all for nothing. In 2010, the U.S. government formally apologized to Guatemala, but the victims and their families have received no compensation for their experience.

The Monster Study

Even the most seemingly simple tests can have lifelong consequences. In 1939, scientists from the University of Iowa conducted a trial to study the effects of stuttering on children. They sourced their subjects from orphanages, many of whom were unaware they were taking part in a study. Some already had a stutter, while others didn’t. During the experiments, half of the subjects were praised for their speech pattern, while the rest were heavily derided. Several of the children displayed negative psychological effects, including refusing to speak and becoming extremely self-conscious. The results of the Monster Study were never published, and it only came to light in 2001 after a reporter stumbled upon the papers. The surviving subjects were finally compensated in 2007.

The Stanford Prison Experiment

Designed by psychologist Philip Zimbardo, the goal of this 1971 experiment was to examine the psychological impact of imprisonment. For the experiment, the psychology building at Stanford University was turned into a prison, with 24 undergraduate students divided into two groups: prisoners and guards. They took their commitment to the roles to disturbing levels, with the guards doling out severe mistreatment and the prisoners accepting it. Things got so intense that some students had to be removed due to the trauma. Although the exercise was supposed to last two weeks, and had the interest of the US Marine Corps and Navy, it was shut down after just six days when the repercussions of the experiment became clear.


The Milgram Experiment

Fascinated by what motivated Nazi officers to commit atrocities during WWII, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted an experiment to see how far Americans would go before their conscience intervened. In the 1960s study, a “teacher” would read questions to a “learner,” who was actually an actor pretending to participate. For every wrong answer, the “teacher” gave what they believed was a real electric shock, gradually increasing to 450 volts. If the teachers objected, they were forced to administer it regardless. After being assured they would be free of responsibility, most complied, even when the “learner” screamed in agony. Two-thirds of the 40 participants went all the way to 450 volts, proving our deep-rooted tendency to obey authority, even against our moral judgment.


Dr. Bender’s Electroconvulsive Therapy

While working as a neuropsychiatrist at New York’s Bellevue Hospital, Dr. Lauretta Bender decided an effective treatment for children with developmental disorders or schizophrenia was electroconvulsive therapy, previously called electroshock therapy. In 1947, Dr. Bender sent small electric currents through the brains of 98 children – some of whom were as young as toddlers. Another of Dr. Bender’s methods for trying to alleviate schizophrenia was to give her young patients LSD. Ted Chabasinski was one of the children who went through the therapy when he was six years old, and he later became a human rights activist who successfully fought against the use of electroshock therapy in Berkeley, California.


Military Experiments with Mustard Gas During World War II

In 1943, the Navy recruited upwards of 60,000 young men for a study. Only they weren’t asked to participate; they were told. Only when they arrived at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., did they find the real purpose of the study: to measure the effects of mustard gas and other chemicals on humans. Locked in chambers and exposed to the deadly gas, the men involved in these experiments suffered horrible health effects, including internal and external burns. Additionally, as it was a wartime experiment, they were bound by oaths of secrecy and faced dishonorable discharge or imprisonment if they spoke of the order, the details of which were not formally declassified until 1993.


Unit 731

World War II was a hotbed for horrific human experimentation. Several countries took part in ghastly research, with victims still being affected by the testing today. Unit 731 in Japan was one of the worst. They were unrelenting, performing vivisections and testing out violent weaponry like grenades and flamethrowers on prisoners of war. They also utilized biological warfare, knowingly giving people frostbite and using animals to spread various harmful pathogens. Over 14,000 people were murdered directly, while an estimated 300,000 died as a result of disease. Even after the torture chamber was shut down, most of the main perpetrators faced only light sentences– and the government has yet to admit the true extent of the war crimes committed.


Vanderbilt University’s “Vitamin Drinks”

Following WWII, researchers at Vanderbilt University gave over 800 pregnant women a mysterious concoction they were told was a special vitamin drink. It was actually a mixture that contained doses of radioactive iron, as the scientists were testing its absorption rate during pregnancy. The radiation these women were exposed to was reportedly 30 times higher than normal. Around 3-4 children died of cancer or leukemia as a result of the experiment, and some mothers developed rashes, lost hair and teeth, and contracted various types of cancer themselves. In 1994, almost 40 years later, Vanderbilt University faced a lawsuit for the four-year study and was forced to pay out more than $10 million in damages.


Josef Mengele’s Twin Study

Japan wasn’t the only country committing scientific atrocities during the second world war. The horrors carried out by Josef Mengele can only be described as evil, with some of his most twisted being conducted on twins. Using one as the control and the other as the experimental group, he put them through torture disguised as scientific testing. His twisted methods included amputating healthy limbs, performing blood transfusions between siblings, and in some macabre cases, sewing people together to create conjoined twins. Many died as a result of these procedures, and those who survived were often slain to be studied afterwards. Out of the 1,500 tested, only 200 made it out alive– making Mengele’s experiments among the deadliest in history.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

From 1932 to 1972, 600 African-American farmers from Alabama were selected for a U.S. Public Health Services program, receiving many benefits for their cooperation. However, they were never informed that they were being studied. Of the group, 399 men had syphilis, while the other 201 served as a control unit. Many of these subjects, mostly poor and illiterate sharecroppers, didn’t know they were infected. Even with penicillin being developed as a cure in 1947, it was withheld from the patients. Many ultimately died of syphilis, while at least 40 women contracted it from their husbands, and nearly 20 children were born with it. The study was only stopped in 1972 after an information leak, but it wasn’t until 1997 that President Bill Clinton issued a formal government apology.


Project MKUltra

Officially sanctioned in 1953 and backed by the CIA, this series of experiments studied the effects of mind control, with methods like hypnosis, drugs, isolation, and sensory deprivation. The CIA enlisted the help of prisons, hospitals and over 40 universities to perform experiments on unwitting subjects. In one of the sub-projects, Operation Midnight Climax, sex workers, acting as undercover agents for the CIA, gave clients LSD, while the agency observed them through a one-way mirror. In 1973, CIA Director Richard Helms ordered the destruction of all records related to MKUltra. However, subsequent investigations led by Senator Frank Church and Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, in addition to 20,000 records recovered in 1977, helped shed light on the activities.


Which of these human-based experiments do you find the most disturbing? Let us know in the comments below.