Eugene Saenger (March 5, 1917 – September 30, 2007)Thomas H. Maugh
"Eugene Saenger, 90; pioneer in radiation research"
''

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'', October 6, 2007 was an American university professor and physician. A graduate of

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, 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 through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

research and

nuclear medicine Nuclear medicine or nucleology is a medical specialty involving the application of radioactive substances in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. Nuclear imaging, in a sense, is "radiology done inside out" because it records radiation emitting ...

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

University of Cincinnati The University of Cincinnati (UC or Cincinnati) is a public research university in Cincinnati, Ohio. Founded in 1819 as Cincinnati College, it is the oldest institution of higher education in Cincinnati and has an annual enrollment of over 44,00 ...

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 Causality, cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome oc ...

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 (from the Greek πέντε ''pente'' meaning ''five'' and γωνία ''gonia'' meaning ''angle'') is any five-sided polygon or 5-gon. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagon may be simpl ...

funded the study, however, according to ''

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'' '...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. 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.

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1917 births 2007 deaths University of Cincinnati faculty Harvard University alumni Human subject research in the United States Radiation health effects researchers American radiologists American medical researchers {{US-physician-stub

Cincinnati Radiation Experiments (1960-1971)

See also

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