Eugene Saenger (March 5, 1917 – September 30, 2007) was an American university professor and physician. A graduate of

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, Saenger was an extremely controversial pioneer in

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

research and

nuclear medicine Nuclear medicine (nuclear radiology, nucleology), is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactivity, radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging is, in a sense, ''radiology done inside out'', ...

, at the expense of human autonomy and dignity. He taught at the

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati, informally Cincy) is a public university, public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1819 and had an enrollment of over 53,000 students in 2024, making it the ...

for more than thirty years.

Cincinnati Radiation Experiments (1960-1971)

From 1960 until 1971, Saenger, a radiologist at the University of Cincinnati, led an

experiment An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

exposing 88 cancer patients, mostly poor and 60% of whom were black, to whole body radiation, even though this sort of treatment had already been discredited by other researchers for the types of cancer these patients had. They were not told the

Pentagon In geometry, a pentagon () is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple polygon, simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simple or list of self-intersecting polygons, self-intersecting. A self-intersecting ...

funded the study, however, according to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' '...In the first five years, the researchers said, they obtained oral consent, and later various written consent forms.' They were told they would be getting an experimental treatment that might help them. Patients were exposed, in the period of one hour, to the equivalent of about 20,000 x-rays worth of radiation. This resulted in nausea, vomiting, severe stomach pain, loss of appetite, and mental confusion. Within the first month, 21 patients died. A report in 1972 indicated that some of the patients died of radiation poisoning, but some of the deaths might have been due simply to the late-stage cancer they already had when experimented on. Saenger received a gold medal for "career achievements" from the Radiological Society of North America. In 1994, the families of the patients sued Saenger, the University of Cincinnati, and the federal government. In 1999, the families won a $3.6 million settlement.

Cincinnati Radiation Experiments (1960-1971)

See also

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Further reading