Medical Experts Decry Wrentham Experiment

Medical experts, advocates for the retarded and a U.S. representative from Massachusetts reacted with outrage yesterday to the discovery of radiation experiments conducted on children at the Wrentham State School.

In 1961 and 1962, a Harvard Medical School assistant professor and a Harvard researcher working at Wrentham gave radioactive iodine to retarded children ages one to 11 in an attempt to determine the consequences of nuclear fallout.

A third physician with ties to the Boston University School of Medicine was also involved in the experimentation.

A task force convened by the state Department of Mental Retardation is investigating the use of students in its schools in experiments with radiation during the Cold War era.

Jim J. Enrietto, executive director of the national advocacy group Voice of the Retarded, said yesterday he has followed reports of the experiments closely.

And Enrietto had bitter words for the researchers who in 1962 fed more than 60 retarded children doses of radioactive iodine.

"How can they do this to the most fragile and helpless population?" Enrietto asked.

Enrietto said he was particularly troubled by questions about whether the children knew that they were being given radioactive iodine.

"If they wanted to do these experiments, they must advise people of the dangers," Enrietto said. "These experiments are unconscionable, awful and a depravation of human rights."

"This is another example of preying upon persons with mental retardation in the name of whatever zealotry some government researcher wanted to engage in," he added.

U.S. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) also condemned the tests.

"It is absolutely shocking that the arrogance of the atomic age and the paranoia of the Cold War resulted in the designation of tiny children at the Wrentham School as 'desirable' subjects for tests related to radioactive fallout," Markey said in a written statement.

"I commend the forthright efforts of present University officials and the Department of Mental Retardation in making these terrible experiments public," Markey said.

Dr. Chris E. Stout, a 1987 Harvard Medical School fellow and a medical ethics expert, said he was "astounded" upon learning of the experiment in news reports yesterday.

"This kind of study reminds me of the Nazi experiments done during World War II," Stout said.

Stout said Harvard bears responsibility for work done by its scientists.

"Certainly the University needs to be responsible for anything done under its name or auspices," said Stout, adding that test subjects should receive some financial compensation, either from Harvard or the federal government.

Enrietto agreed. "These individuals should have been held accountable long before now," he said. "But I think all we can do now is find out who was harmed."

"We want to be sure it doesn't happen ever again," Enrietto said.

Professor of Medicine Emeritus Dr. Walter H. Abelmann is heading a Harvard panel of professors and medical experts examining University research on human subjects. He said yesterday that the panel will scrutinize the recently revealed Wrentham School research.

"I expect in time to hear more about this," Abelmann said. "It will eventually be on our list."

The Abelmann panel will convene for the first time on February 18.

Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics Richard Wilson, a radiation expert, said he thought the radiation ingested by the children was minimal.

Wilson, who has reviewed the study, said he was unable to determine the exact doses given to the children, but said they appeared to be "small."

The children involved sustained only a "very small" chance of experiencing long-term health problems as a result of the experiment, Wilson said.

"But again, the issue is not whether these doses to children were appropriate," Wilson said. "Even if the dose is low, the question is still one of basic human rights."

Markey said he supported the mental retardation department and other state officials "in their determination to do the right thing...to address the gruesome mistakes of the past."

"In light of the discovery of these experiments, along with those at the Fernald School, I will insist that the Federal Inter-Agency Task Force give heightened attention to experiments with developmentally challenged children as part of its efforts to provide full disclosure of human radiation experiments," Markey said.