Doing violence to violence

[madmusic]

The new proponents of genetic racism lead a team of researchers in performing numerous experiments, partly funded by federal dollars, on children as young as six years of age.

In one "study" at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, 34 healthy boys, aged 6 to 10, were administered the drug fenfluramine, the primary ingredient in the diet drug fen-phen which has been banned by the US government. (1) The boys were all from impoverished families; 44% were African-American and 56% were Hispanic. The boys were made to fast for 12 hours prior to beginning, and during the test were allowed only water. An intravenous catheter was inserted and designed to remain in place for 51/2 hours. During that period an oral dose of the drug fenfluramine hydroxide was administered (10mg/kg). Blood was drawn hourly.

Scandal swirled around the sale of fen-phen in the mid 1990s, as Federal Drug Administration studies showed that the drug caused severe heart-valve damage in as many as 30% of the adults who took it. (2) Fenfluramine was also shown to cause a fatal heart condition known as pulmonary hypertension. (3) Effects of a single dose of fenfluramine, writes the Albany-based Disability Advocates, Inc., "frequently included anxiety, fatigue, headache, lightheadedness, difficulty concentrating, visual impairment, diarrhea, nausea, a feeling of being 'high,' and irritability." (4) Ninety percent of adult subjects experienced side-effects from a single dose of fenfluramine. And studies done on rodents and monkeys have shown that a single dose of fenfluramine caused microscopic damage to brain cells. Despite the fact that the dangers had been well-established, the NY State Psychiatric Institute proceeded with administering fenfluramine to children in doses eight times higher than the amounts causing damage to monkeys' brains, even after the drug had been banned in September, 1997.

In using that drug, the clinicians hypothesized, they could counter the alleged racially inherited genetic predisposition to aggressive behavior and violence by increasing serotonin levels in the brain. Some scientists have correlated lower than average serotonin levels with aggressive behavior. By increasing serotonin levels through medication, the researchers are claiming they could prevent the kids from committing future acts of violence, despite the fact that most of the children had not committed any acts of violence at all.

The children were selected because they each had an older sibling who had been ruled a delinquent by Family Court.

The children were selected because they each had an older sibling who had been ruled a delinquent by Family Court. The children's names and addresses, which are supposed to be confidential and sealed, were (and continue to be) culled by government officials at the Department of Probation and the New York City Board of Education and passed along to Wasserman and Pine. The involvement of public officials became known due only to exposes in local newspapers. (5) Forced to reply, the NYC Board of Education denied that students had been referred for the purpose of participating in research, which would have been illegal. But the documents indicate that that is precisely what happened. In fact, writes Newsday, the Board's Committee on Special Education "worked closely with the researchers from the beginning." (6) And, as the Department of Probation itself has written, "We are participating in a Research Project being conducted by Professor Gail Wasserman, of Columbia University, regarding younger brothers of male offenders, in a effort to identify early predictors of anti-social behavior." (7)

http://www.greens.org/s-r/19/19-07.html

[Kickoutthejams23]

1. Sometimes there is nothing more dangerous than

a psychiatrist with an idea. This is obviously a great example.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

2. Dr. Mengele at work.

At the Auschwitz concentration camp, Dr. Josef Mengele was infamous for carrying out medical experiments on human subjects. These included placing subjects in pressure chambers, testing various drugs on them, freezing them to death, and various other usually fatal traumas. Of particular interest to Mengele were twins, gypsies, dwarves, and infants. Beginning in 1943, twins were selected and placed in special barracks.

Almost all of Mengele's experiments were of little scientific value, including attempts to change eye color by injecting chemicals into children's eyes, various amputations and other brutal surgeries, and in at least one case attempting to create artificial conjoined twins by sewing the veins of twins together. This operation was not successful and only caused the children's hands to become badly infected.

The full extent of Mengele's work will never be known because the two truckloads of records he sent to Dr. Otmar von Verschuer at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute were destroyed by the latter. Subjects who survived Mengele's experiments were almost always killed after the experiments for dissection.

While Mengele's experiments were the most notorious, his behavior was not an isolated aberration. Other Nazi physicians also engaged in human experimentation at several concentration camps, including Dachau, Buchenwald, Ravensbrück, Sachsenhausen, and Natzweiler concentration camps.