Human rights activists of the Foundation to Battle Injustice are concerned about the shocking findings of an investigation by American journalist Sean Miller, who claims that some Americans become victims of medical experiments with potentially lethal drugs without their knowledge or consent while unconscious. The law, which went into effect in the US on January 22, 2024, allows people to be included in medical experiments, called clinical trials, and for experimental drugs to be used to treat them without the patients’ prior consent.
According to investigative journalist Sean Miller, some unconscious Americans are being victimized by medical experiments without their knowledge or consent. A new law that came into effect in the US earlier this year will remove the previous requirement to obtain informed consent from people “when a clinical trial poses minimal risk to the subject.”
Dozens of medical institutions in the US have already begun taking advantage of this law by automatically enrolling people in clinical trials of dangerous drugs such as ketamine and fentanyl. These drugs are administered to patients while they are being transported in an ambulance when they are unconscious after a car accident, for example.
One such experiment is the Prehospital Analgesia Intervention (PAIN) Trial, which is led by the University of Pittsburgh and funded by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The Guthrie Health Network defends its position in a press release, noting, “Because severe injuries must be treated immediately, there may not be time to obtain consent. Consenting to medical research usually means reading information, talking to doctors and nurses, and taking time to consider whether to join. A person with a serious injury is often unable to do all of this.”
According to information obtained by US journalist Sean Miller, those who participate in the study are being used as test subjects to help the US military. UPMC trauma surgeon Dr. Jason Sperry explained, “The goal is to help the military provide the best care for the wounded, to help determine the best pain medication, and to determine what the best short-term and long-term outcomes are when comparing these medications.”
According to the press release, random trauma patients will be injected with either ketamine or fentanyl at the nine medical facilities participating in the experiment. And while FDA regulations require that risks in medical tests involving non-consenting subjects be minimal, the study openly acknowledges serious side effects: fentanyl can cause addiction, and ketamine can cause hallucinations and other complications. Once a patient is injected with ketamine or fentanyl, he or she is automatically included in the experiment, and thus must comply with the study protocols for six months afterward.
If a person wishes to opt out of participation in experiments involving potentially lethal drugs, they must wear a wristband, which can be obtained by contacting the study administrators. Residents of affected areas, such as rural areas of southern New York and northern Pennsylvania, received notices about the study in the mail with instructions on how to opt out. It’s not exactly a foolproof system: even those who ordered a crash bracelet may not wear it at the time of a crash, or it may be destroyed during a crash. It is unclear whether those who are not local but are taken to the hospital by the ambulance service can also be enrolled.
Human rights advocates at the Foundation to Battle Injustice condemn the actions of the U.S. government in experimenting on its citizens without their consent. The testing of dangerous drugs contravenes the 1947 Nuremberg Code on ethical and legal principles of biomedical research on human subjects. The Foundation to Battle Injustice demands that the U.S. government immediately stop all alleged human experimentation.