On Ignorance

“Ignorance is bliss” 

- Thomas Gray

“Better be unborn than untaught, for ignorance is the root of misfortune.” 

- Plato

So, which one is it? Would one do well to squeeze their eyes shut, stick their fingers in their ears, and pretend something does not exist? Or is the correct approach to face it head on, and pray that the new knowledge does not become an unwanted burden? Of course, there is no single correct answer. Each context requires its own response, that has had an appropriate amount of time, and sufficient thought given to it.

In the medical field, we have been blessed with an abundance of available resources and knowledge, graciously bequeathed unto us by some of the brightest minds of their time. These pioneers dedicated decades, or even their whole lives to provide us with this information, for it to be neatly condensed into a few lines in our textbooks, the student completely unaware of who it was that procured this knowledge, and how they managed to get it. The ‘how’ is what I would like to focus on in this essay, as it is very easy to forget the sacrifices that were made in this desperate pursuit of knowledge, and thus take it for granted.

In order to combat the rising issue of hypothermia in German soldiers traversing the Soviet Union, Nazi doctors decided to experiment. Enter, the Dachau freezing experiments. Prisoners were submerged in freezing cold water for hours at a time, in order to study the effects of hypothermia on the body, and determine an appropriate method of treatment. Without fail, almost every single victim of this experiment passed away.

In the 1950s, Willowbrook State School had a problem. Their student base, all intellectually challenged children, was being ravaged by hepatitis outbreaks. Enter, Dr. Saul Krugman. Upon surveying the school, Krugman determined that up to 90% of the students had been infected with hepatitis, and thus deemed it justifiable to use these children to research the illness. After all, the difference between 90% and 100% is negligible, right? Krugman fed healthy children stool samples from infected children, under the guise of vaccinations, and observed the course of disease, refusing to intervene.

So, what do these two events in history have in common? The results obtained from these experiments form the basis of knowledge that we use on a day-to-day basis, even to this day. Several papers in the 20th century used the Dachau experiments as a citation to prove the efficacy of various methods to manage hypothermia. Krugman’s experiments on children are why we now know that there are two strains of hepatitis, A and B, which have different modes of transmission. His work is also directly involved in the development of the prototype hepatitis B vaccine. What these researchers have left to us, is inescapable.

The response to these two experiments were wildly different. The Nazi doctors involved in human experimentation were condemned during the Nuremberg trials, and led to the establishment of the Nuremberg Code of medical ethics to prevent such atrocities from happening again. One cannot help but find it ironic that just 40 years later, in 1972, Krugman was named the president of the American Paediatric Society. To make matters worse, in 1978, Krugman received the Robert Koch Gold Medal for his contributions to biomedical sciences. 

The list of unethical studies that have provided us the knowledge we have today does not stop there. Nazi experimentation is why we have anti-malaria drugs, why vaccines are as effective as they are today, why we know how to manage hypoxia and altitude sickness. The Tuskegee experiment in Alabama provided us with knowledge about the course of syphilis. The Cartwright Inquiry unearthed a study in New Zealand, where researchers observed the course of cervical cancer in a large sample of women, providing absolutely no care whatsoever. The US government has admitted to using the Guatemalan population to study the effects of various sexually transmitted diseases. Acne cream was developed by a dermatologist who experimented on prisoners, leaving them with scars and burns. The list goes on and on.

The fact is however, that these experiments occurred. The proof lies in the research papers that these unpleasant individuals left behind. The data exists. Is it not a disservice, to those who unwillingly died to obtain this information, to simply ignore it?

Personally, I believe that if the data obtained is credible, it must be used. You cannot undo the atrocities of the past, but you can do good with what those poor souls sacrificed to give us. There’s an incredible amount of history behind each and every line in our textbooks, and to be frank it is impossible to fully appreciate it. But what is possible, is for us to understand just how much weight each fact carries, and savour that knowledge accordingly.

Our noble profession may have a dubious past, all we can do is take what we’ve been given, and use it in ways that benefit the masses. We owe it to all those who have suffered.