Acres
of Skin
by Allen M. Hornblum
ALL the world knows of Adolf Hitler and the
atrocities committed under his leadership during the Nazi era. But were
he and his small band of accomplices alone? Psychiatrists supplied the
flawed theories and ideas of eugenics and biochemistry which provided the
justification for wholesale slaughter of the "inferior". Timely reading
because modern psychiatry is treading down the same path once again - forgetting
about healing and concentrating instead on biology, genetics, and brain
chemistry.
While this book doesn't deal only with psychiatric
abuses, it clearly shows how "scientific" justification is always ready
to forgot all concepts of human decency and morality in their imaginary
quest for "the truth". We need to all realize that IT CAN HAPPEN RIGHT
NOW, and this book shows it did. Sadly, it is still going on.
Reviews
The Philadelphia Inquirer, William C.
Smith
[T]he book is not an exposé. Much
of this story first came to light in the prisoner lawsuits, U.S. Senate
hearings, and media coverage that finally ended medical testing at the
prison in the early 1970s. The outcry quickly died down, though, and this
bizarre chapter of Philadelphia's medical history has since been largely
forgotten. Hornblum has masterfully retold this tale through exhaustive
interviews with inmates, prison officials and doctors, as well as reams
of government documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
From Booklist, May 1, 1998
Thanks in good part to the Freedom of Information
Act (and many interviews, too), Hornblum tells the story of medical experiments,
ended in 1974, on prisoners in a Philadelphia prison. Most of the experiments
involved the effects of chemicals on the skin (hence the title), but they
also included military trials, stopped in 1966, of LSD and other mind-altering
drugs. Dermatologist Albert M. Kligman and those prison administrators
who knew about the experiments always claimed that no prisoners were coerced,
informed consent was required, and any prisoner could withdraw from any
experiment at any time. Hornblum punches holes in each of those statements.
He compares some of the experiments with those of Nazi doctors during World
War II, showing how, in one case, a Nazi physician apparently saved his
life by describing some of the U.S. prison experiments to the judges in
the Nuremberg trials. A low-keyed but devastating picture of U.S. medical
experimentation and the men, educational institutions, and drug companies
that carried it out.
Synopsis
From the mid-1950s through the mid-1970s,
inmates of Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison were used, in exchange for
a few dollars, as guinea pigs in a host of medical experiments. Hornblum
paints a disturbing portrait of abuse, moral indifference, and greed, as
doctors, in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania and prison
officials, established the prison as a testing lab.
Customer Comments
Fred Powell (drmadlab@yahoo.com)
from New York, USA, September 7, 1999
An Eye Opener
This book is great because it shows you
the depths of exploitation that some people are willing to descend to in
the name of science and the almighty buck. America is always so ready and
willing to condemn Germany for Nazism, which we should, but we'd better
examine our own diabolical potential as well.
A reader from USA, June
19, 1999
Yet another national disgrace.
Perpetrator of these atrocities, University
of Pennsylvania's "Dr." Albert Kligman, is the second physician in FDA
history to be barred from experimenting on human subjects. Both Retin-A
and Renova are derivatives of skin hardening chemicals he concocted at
Holmesburg Prison. This merciless freak experimented on hospitalized retarded
children and helpless elderly patients as well. Never apologized to his
tortured victims or their families.
I am permanently boycotting Retin-A, Renova,
Johnson & Johnson and Dow Chemical. U. Penn will never get a dime from
me either. All of them continue to profit greatly from wanton destruction
of human lives.
SSC197@AOL.COM from OHIO
USA, February 20, 1999
IT'S A VERY TRUE STORY MY FATHER WAS
ONE OF THOSE EXPERIMENTS
ACRES OF SKIN IS A VERY TRUE STORY I'M SO
GLAD MR. HORNBLUM FINALLY GOT THE TRUTH OUT ABOUT OUR MEDICAL AND INSTITUTIONS
ONE OF THOSE HORRID EXPERIMENTS WAS GOING ON AT THE OHIO STATE PEN. MY
FATHER WAS ONE OF THE FIRST THERE. HE IS NOW DECEASED AND I BLAME OUR STATE
AND MEDICAL FACILITIES.
jbeisler@juno.com from Philadelphia,
August 23, 1998
disturbing exposé of human medical
experiments in the U.S.
As a former UPenn student, I found this
book to be especially horrifying. The U.S. tried the Nazi doctors for their
crimes against humanity, but then we decided that the Nurembug Code didn't
apply to us. Instead, the human medical experiments that went on at Holmesburg
prison, which are described in disturbing detail in Hornblum's excellent
book, were not unusual in this country. I liked this book because it exposés
the hypocrisy beneath much of American morality. Out of one side of our
mouth we quite rightly condemn the Nazis for their grotesque acts, but
then we turn around & sanction similar experiments on disadvantaged
members of our own population. Perhaps the most interesting section of
the book is its history of medical experimentation in our country, which
began well before the second World War & continued until the mid 1970's.
A must-read.
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