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submitted 4 weeks ago by not_IO to c/memes@lemmy.world
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So, this has actually been one of those things often claimed, you may have heard of it or maybe even thought it yourself (I certainly had the thought as an edgy teen). Stuff like "For all the horrors, they probably did make some progress with experiments in concentration camps" or similar things.

Now, beside the point of it being unacceptable to do so ethically - the stuff done there was also quite useless. I currently can't do the work of searching for and gathering all the sources again, but to my memory: the cruelty and dismissal of humanity made the "results" of those "studies" mostly useless garbage, saying nothing at all worthwhile for science, and being clearly tainted ideologically.

Because, while you may think that in some "ideal" world, you could have neutral research on unwilling humans, the reality has always been, that the conditions needed to get humans to do such experiments on other humans, necessitate the kind of ideological distortions, that mostly make the results useless in the end. There's simply not enough psychopaths that are also willing to do proper, frustrating, hard-work-necessitating, non-self-aggrandising research - and to get non-psychopaths to do it, you need an ideology that ultimately removes their neutrality and the neutrality of the research.

The only things I remember being deemed "useful" and "properly" done from a scientific perspective in the recovered "studies" were things like "lethality of grenades by proximity to the explosion" - something that is questionable to begin with in value and that can also be determined with sensors of different kinds - as well as "effects of massive hypothermia and frostbites" - which as far as I remember basically just confirmed what has been estimated from case studies in a broader way, as well as animal studies (the latter, admittedly, have their own legitimate controversy).

[-] disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world 21 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

For all the horrors, they probably did make some progress with experiments in concentration camps.

They did. Read about Unit 731. Unquestionably inhumane experiments yielded breakthroughs in human-pathogen interactions that substantially advanced the field. However, it goes without question that no amount of knowledge justified the means.

https://www.pacificatrocities.org/human-experimentation.html

I did, and from what I heard, it is a big myth that the results were actually as useful as the first assessment on discovery of them had been. Later studies have, as far as I know, been much more sobering as to the "usefulness" of the data acquired there.

The website you link also immediately shows the problem (even in presentation, presenting them quite sensationalist, immediately highlighting, that there is no possibility of neutrality in assessing the results): The "cruelty for cruelty's sake" in the conditions of the experiments cannot easily be removed from the results. Making the data in the end only useful for very specific circumstances, and hard to untangle. Lets take venereal diseases for example - it ultimately shows how they spread and interact in conditions of forced mass rape under conditions of extreme squalor, as documented by people not engaged in proper double-blind environments. The usefulness of that is not as high as the myth surrounding Unit 731 or Mengele's experiments might suggest - and as your linked website also shows, there is a material interest in selling that myth of "forbidden, evil experiments resulting in knowledge".

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 37 points 4 weeks ago

Guess this guy Ioves the experiments the Imperial Japanese Army did on Chinese people.

[-] unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de 34 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

You wont believe what this guy did :) Ding Ding Ding!!! Human experiments on babies.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Jiankui

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/people/jiankui-he

[-] makyo@lemmy.world 36 points 4 weeks ago

Can we insist that he put his money where his mouth is and be the first of his own victims er I mean test subjects

[-] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 13 points 4 weeks ago

My favorite is Barry Marshall. He thought there was a connection between bacteria and ulcers, which was an unpopular opinion at the time. So he intentionally drank the offending bacteria, got sick as expected, and then people believed him.

More here, including (which I didn't know until now) cardiac catheterization.

I'm sure better sources exist but https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/these-five-doctors-experimented-on-themselves-and-made-big-breakthroughs

[-] Fredthefishlord 4 points 4 weeks ago

If we allow animal experimentation it's only fair to also allow human experimentation

[-] Natanox@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 4 weeks ago

Only on consenting adults who have the ability to reasonably reject the offer (so they're not forced into it for any reason, like money). The guy in the picture did it on babies, so… if you want to do it on yourself go ham, but that wouldn't be fair. Animal experimentation is bad enough.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 weeks ago

His experiments were successful, so. At least he's not the Green Goblin

[-] MountingSuspicion@reddthat.com 2 points 4 weeks ago

My understanding is that there were known, safe and effective alternatives already and that there is not guarantee what he did actually did anything or that it didn't cause some unknown harm.

[-] mavu@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 4 weeks ago

well, he is correct.

That is what among other things, ethics is supposed to do. hold back science from doing things that would be bad. you know?

[-] VaalaVasaVarde@sopuli.xyz 12 points 4 weeks ago

Could be that Dr. He has a picture of Dr Mengele sitting at his table...

[-] Emi@ani.social 6 points 4 weeks ago

Do you want vault-tec? Cuz this is how you get vault-tec.

[-] Agrivar@lemmy.world 3 points 4 weeks ago

Right? That dude even has an uncanny resemblance to the potato headed NPCs in FO3 and FONV!

[-] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com 6 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

our scientific understanding of exactly how many punches the mean baby can withstand is being held back by ethics

[-] KulunkelBoom@lemm.ee 5 points 4 weeks ago

What a shame you fuckers aren't allowed to kill off humanity with yet another experiment gone bad.

[-] Enzy@lemm.ee 5 points 4 weeks ago
[-] qjkxbmwvz@startrek.website 8 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Innovation, perhaps; progress...that's something else.

[-] Enzy@lemm.ee 2 points 4 weeks ago

Do what must be done. Do not hesistate, show no mercy.

[-] Alloi@lemmy.world 4 points 4 weeks ago

a man chooses......a slave OBEYYYYYSSSSS

[-] moosetwin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 weeks ago

why don't you back it up with a source

for some reason no one saw my last video comment, hopefully this one actually works

this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2025
934 points (100.0% liked)

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