Q. Professor, I have seen a document on experiments in hunger that were carried out on conscientious objectors. That appeared in a periodical. It is described how these conscientious objectors went through considerable unpleasantness and did not want to continue the experiment. They kept their promise only at great effort. Is that known to you?
Mr. Hardy: I suggest that counsel refer to the document that he is talking about at this time and make it available for Dr. Ivy, or make the facts available, the particular data, so that Dr. Ivy will be fully aware of the circumstances.
Presiding Judge Beals: Does counsel have a document which he can make available? Then he will use it.
Dr. Servatius: I have only one copy in English here. (Presented to witness.) I shall have to find the passage I am referring to.
I can’t seem to find it. This is a long document and somewhere there is the statement that the experimental subjects have to summon all their forces to remain in the experiment. However, I shall drop the subject for the moment. Witness, is there not another inducement that persuades prisoners to volunteer for experiments? Is not the prospect of pardon or other advantages the reason for applying?
Witness Dr. Ivy: When these malaria experiments started, that prospect was not held out to the prisoners, hence the possibility of a reduction in sentence, in being placed on parole sooner than otherwise, was not a prospect. However, since some of these malaria experiments have been terminated, a reduction of sentences in addition to that allowed for ordinary “good behavior” has been granted by the parole board. For that reason Governor Green of the State of Illinois appointed a committee with me as chairman to consider this question which you have in mind: How much reduction of sentence can be allowed in such instances so that the reduction in sentence will not be great enough to exert undue influence or constitute duress in obtaining volunteers? I have my conclusions ready and can read them to you, if you desire to hear them.
Q. Please do so. May I ask when this committee was formed?
A. The formation of the committee, according to the best of my recollection, occurred in December 1946, when the prisoners with indeterminate sentences were up for consideration for parole. This was the first time the question of reduction in sentence came up.
Q. One more question, Witness. Did the formation of this committee have anything to do with the fact that this trial is going on, or with the fact that this malaria case was published in Life magazine and that it was explicitly stated that the experimental subjects were receiving no compensation, no pardon, reduction of sentence? Is there any connection between those things?
A. There is no connection between the appointment of this committee and this trial, for this reason, that there is a division of opinion regarding the work that the parole boards do. Some believe that the parole boards are too soft; others believe that they are too hard. If a reduction in sentence were too great, parole boards would be criticized in the newspapers. Obviously the parole board wants to act on the basis of the best opinion on medical ethics that they can obtain. Accordingly, this committee was appointed.