“During the twentieth century, babies and children in orphanages and Homes, mainly made up of stolen Aboriginal children, were used as subjects for medical experiments.

Reports from the Senate Inquiry into Children in Institutional Care contained details of studies carried out by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the Commonwealth Serum Laboratory (CSL) between 1945 and 1970.

Many other medical institutions also carried out experiments on Aboriginal children in 'care' but most of the records have been systematically destroyed or lost. “


The University of Melbourne issued an apology to the Forgotten Australians over medical experiments performed on children in state care.


In an email to staff and students, the university's vice-chancellor expressed particular regret for the part played by researchers linked to the institution.

Following the revelations in the Nuremberg trials of the extent to which Nazi doctors had experimented on children, a code of conduct was developed for obtaining consent in medical research.

In the following decades that code was refined and nowadays many countries, including Australia, have their own strict guidelines for the use of children in medical experiments.

But before that it was fairly common practice for children in care, in particular, to be used in experiments, usually without consent.

In 2004, Queensland Labor Senator Jan McLucas chaired a Senate inquiry into the experiences of the Forgotten Australians.

"I think it was quite surprising to all of the committee members the extent of use of children for a range of trials, of vaccines, or other medical procedures, including horrifically enforced gynecological examinations of young girls as almost routine," she said.

"It happened in a lot of places in Australia; drugs were provided to children under approved trials, events that would never happen nowadays of course, but it was rather extensive and fairly shocking."


Related topic: HOW HOLLAND COMMITTED MEDICAL CRIME AGAINST CHILDREN IN AUSTRALIA


Deep regret


In some of the material sourced by the inquiry, a researcher from the University of Melbourne is named as being involved in experiments using children in care.

In an email sent to staff and students, the university's vice-chancellor, Glyn Davis, said it was appropriate that the university took the occasion "to express its deep regret for the part played by researchers linked to its community in vaccination research trials conducted after World War II using children in orphanages as subjects".

The email says the counselling services of the university are available to Forgotten Australians who are part of its community.

Read more: https://secretsofaidsandebola..be/2018/03/aboriginal-children-used-as-lab-rats.html


Photo: Like Africans and African-Americans, Aboriginal children were also used for various experiments in Australia