There are a lot of things that are better in the 21^st century compared to the times of the past. One of those is the concept of various scientific experiments on humans. In the present age, we have ethics commissions that decide whether medical research can be performed on animals like rats but back then there was no such thing. Medicines or deadly chemical weapons that were developed had to be tested on actual humans to see the full extent of their effectiveness.

Other than that, experimentation on prisoners was also done during the war as a form of torture and to produce more research on things that were unknown back then. Most of these individuals were often injected with deadly diseases and then left to suffer while the scientists used to gather data on them. Others were subjected to harsh weather conditions like the cold in experiments such as the one carried out by the Luftwaffe in 1942 in order to find a treatment for hypothermia which could then be used on the German pilots during the war. Evil and unethical human experiments are an unfortunate chapter of our past and even though we’re free of such things now, this list still serves as a reminder for all the lives that were lost and damaged because of them.

15. Stanford Prison Psychological Experiment

For a lot of people, the image that comes to mind when hearing the words ‘evil human experiments’ is that a person being physically tortured or mutated in some sort of way. The truth is that psychological experiments can be just as damaging as the physical ones. One of these was the Stanford Prison Experiment which was conducted to study psychological behaviors of humans in captivity and to see the relationship between authorities and inmates in prison.

It was conducted in 1971 by psychologist Philip Zimbardo in a mock prison constructed inside the basement of the Stanford psychology building. The result was shocking as both prisoners and their guards quickly adapted their roles leading to some very dangerous and psychologically damaging situations. It was deducted that one-third of the guards harbored genuine sadistic tendencies while two traumatized students acting as prisoners had to be removed early in the experiment.

14. Results Of Project 4.1

Project 4.1 was the name given to a medical study conducted by the U.S government on the residents of the Marshall Islands who ever exposed to large amounts of radiation during the Castle Bravo nuclear test on March 1, 1954. During the first decade after the experiment, no effects which could be statistically linked to radiation exposure we observed.

The real effects started showing after this, however, as many children started suffering from thyroid cancer which is caused by exposure to radioiodines. By 1974, more than a third of these had developed neoplasms (an abnormal tissue growth which is usually a characteristic of cancer). The study led many people who were affected to believe that they were essentially used as guinea pigs in a radiation experiment.

13. Human Experiments By The Nazis

Nazi human experimentation is a well-documented fact and unfortunately, it is one of the ugliest things to happen in our history. Almost all of these were downright evil, subjecting prisoners in concentration camps to a number cruel and painful studies. The person leading most of these experiments was Dr. Josef Mengele, a name that you might’ve heard in your high school history class. He was most fascinated with twins, having performed experiments on more than 1,500 pairs out of which fewer than 200 survived.

Some of the other experiments involved placing prisoners into below freezing temperatures and inflicting wounds after which they were infected with bacteria like gangrene and tetanus to check the effectiveness of various treatment drugs. Dr. Mengele managed to elude capture after World War II and died when he drowned in 1979 while swimming off the Brazilian coast.

12. CIA’s MKULTRA Mind Control Project

This is not something out of a sci-fi movie, in fact, MKULTRA was the code name for a CIA mind-control operation. It was a research program being run by the Office of Scientific Intelligence which first started in the early 50s and went on till the late 60s. The project involved the use of different types of drugs like LSD on unsuspecting subjects and without their consent.

This was specifically against the Nuremberg Code which was agreed on by the United States after WWII. Many of the subjects were CIA employees, prostitutes, mentally ill patients and random members of the public. Once the drugs started to take effect, the reaction elicited by each person was recorded for later study and use.

11. The Monster Experiment On Orphans

We mentioned earlier that damaging psychological experiments can have long lasting consequences on the subjects. This effect is even more amplified once the subjects of such a study turn out to be children. The Monster Study was an experiment to determine the causes of stuttering which involved 22 orphan children living in Davenport, Iowa.

In 1939, Wendell Johnson at University of Iowa chose one of his graduate students, Mary Tudor to conduct an experiment where she was to give positive speech therapy to half of the children and negative speech therapy to the others. The negative therapy involved belittling the children on every speech mistake and telling them that they were stutterers. Because of this, many of them developed permanent speech problems for the rest of their lives. This experiment was kept hidden to safeguard Johnson’s reputation, however, the University of Iowa publicly apologized for this horrendous experiment in 2001.

10. Testing Mustard Gas On Soldiers

Mustard gas is the stuff of nightmares which is why its use has now been banned since it is classified as a chemical weapon. Back in the 1940s, the research for a bio-weapon had been intensified because of the ongoing war. The biggest problem though was how to check its effects on the human body.

This is where the Army decided to test these horrendous bio-weapons on their own soldiers who unaware of the fact that they were being used as guinea pigs. Upon contacting the skin, mustard gas would cause severe pain and itching, leaving behind rashes that were reminiscent of severe chemical burns. It is also rumored that further testing of these weapons was done on patients at VA hospitals and once again, without their consent.

9. Untreated Syphilis Study On African Americans

This experiment was officially known as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. For those who are unaware, Syphilis is an STD (sexually transmitted disease) which if left untreated can result in death. Between 1932 and 1972, 399 poor and illiterate African American males were selected for this experiment and were later denied treatment for Syphilis.

Many of the individuals who had participated in this study did not give informed consent were told that they had “bad blood”. Participating would basically mean that they could avail free medical treatment and burial insurance in case of death. By the time the study had ended, 128 individuals had died because of Syphilis while 40 of their wives had been infected and 19 children had been born with congenital Syphilis.

8. Imperial Japanese Army’s Unit 731

War brings with itself a lot of other bad and ugly things. Most of these cruel experiments are carried out on prisoners of war as they cannot object and are entirely at the mercy of their captors. It is no hidden fact that the Nazis did some crazy things but the Imperial Japanese Army wasn’t one to stay back either.

During World War II, they were responsible for carrying out some of the most horrendous human experiments ever. These were usually done under the instruction of commander Shiro Ishii and his Unit 731. Most of them involved amputating the limbs of prisoners and reattaching them to other parts of their body while some were even used as test subjects for grenades and flamethrowers. Prisoners were also repeatedly injected with strains of deadly diseases to study their effects on the human body. The sad part is that Ishii was eventually granted immunity at the end of the war and he walked away unpunished.

7. Experiments On Prisoners In North Korea

There are a lot of things wrong with North Korea and it’s no surprise at cruel experiments on prisoners is one of them. Most of the reports show these to be on the same level as the ones done by the Nazis and the Japanese but the North Korean government has always denied such accusations. Let’s be honest, who in history has ever accepted something like this?

One of the most chilling stories was told by a female North Korean prisoner who described an experiment where 50 healthy female prisoners were forced to eat poisoned cabbage leaves. Within 20 minutes, all the 50 women were dead because of vomiting blood. Some of the other cruel experiments involve testing poisonous gas on a group of people, usually a family. Observations are made by the scientists as the subjects suffocate and die.

6. Radioactive Experiments On Soldiers

Most of you might be aware of the Manhattan Project. It was all of the research which was funded by the United States government to develop a nuclear bomb. At the time, however, the effects of radiation which resulted from a nuclear explosion were unknown to scientists. So, what did they do? They went out and started injecting uranium and plutonium into unsuspecting patients without their consent.

These involved soldiers, as well as patients, admitted at different hospitals in places like Chicago and Massachusetts. Out of the 18 patients, only 5 were able to live longer than 20 years after the injection. An additional 11 people were also injected by Dr. William Sweet between 1946 and 1947. He was known to keep dead tissue from the bodies of people that had died from his experiments.

5. The Aversion Project On Homosexuals

Beginning in the 1970s, the apartheid army of South Africa was responsible for performing forced ‘sex-change’ operations on soldiers who were suspected to be homosexual. Army psychiatrists aggressively singled out anyone whom they thought showed signs of homosexuality and sent them to secret military psychiatric units across the country.

Different treatments like aversion shock therapy and hormones were initially used on the subjects but if those failed, extreme procedures like chemical castrations and sex-change operations were performed. It is estimated that almost 900 of these forced sexual reassignment operations were performed between the years of 1971 ad 1989. Dr. Aubrey Levin who was the head of this study at the time is now a Clinical Professor in good standing at the University of Calgary’s Medical School.

4. The Horror Of Agent Orange

During the Vietnam War, the United States used a new weapon for biological warfare known as Agent Orange. It was originally developed as a herbicide but It also had a lot of adverse effects on people. Dr. Albert Kligman was put in charge of testing out the effects of Agent Orange on humans and he was given complete funding by the U.S Army and Dow Chemical Company.

Prisoners were brought in for the experiments which were termed “dermatological research”. It basically involved testing dioxidin, a main component of Agent Orange on exposed human skin or via an injection. The results were horrific, with many patients developing chloracne which broke out on every single part of the body including the genitals. At one point, Kilgman is reported to have said, “All I saw before me were acres of skin … It was like a farmer seeing a fertile field for the first time.” If that isn’t sadistic, then we don’t know what is.

3. Spreading Cancer In Puerto Rico, Literally

Dr. Cornelius Rhoads was a scientist who was tasked by the Rockefeller institute to perform a study and conduct experiments on the effects of cancer in Puerto Rico. He ended up infecting several Puerto Rican citizens with cancer cells, out of which thirteen died after a short while.

This is not all though as a note which was written by Rhoads himself stated, “The Porto Ricans (sic) are the dirtiest, laziest, most degenerate and thievish race of men ever to inhabit this sphere… I have done my best to further the process of extermination by killing off eight and transplanting cancer into several more… All physicians take delight in the abuse and torture of the unfortunate subjects.” This proved that he was a very sick man but unfortunately, nothing was ever done to hold him accountable for his actions. He also later went on to become the vice-president of the American Cancer Society.

2. The Operation Named Midnight Climax

No, this is not the name of a film featuring pornography. Instead, it is another one of the experiments which were carried out by the CIA in safehouses across New York and San Francisco. This involved testing the effects of LSD on individuals without their consent. So, how did they lure them in? Well, the CIA had hired prostitutes (yes, that actually happened) who were tasked with the job of luring their clients back to these safehouses.

Instead of having a fun night, these clients were then dosed with a number of drugs including LSD. A two-way mirror was also set up behind which the scientists could observe the effects of these drugs on their subjects. What’s really sad is that the officials involved in this experiment described it as the most fun that they’ve ever had.

1. A Secret Soviet Poison Laboratory

A covert poison laboratory, also known as “The Chamber” was a facility used by the Soviet secret services for the research and development of deadly chemicals like mustard gas, ricin, and many others. These were usually tested on prisoners that were brought in from the Gulag (Soviet forced labor camps). The goals of these experiments were to discover a chemical agent which could not be detected post mortem.

The research worked and a chemical called C-2 was finally developed. Once again, it was tested on the prisoners who usually died within 15 minutes of being exposed to this poison. To gather more data, prisoners with different ages and physical conditions were also brought in.