Doctors Infected Disabled Kids With Hepatitis for Science

Added: 2026-06-07

[00:00:00]Did you know that American doctors once deliberately infected hundreds of mentally disabled children with hepatitis just to study what would happen? Between 1956 and 1970, researchers at the Willowbrook State School [music] on Staten Island turned vulnerable children into human test subjects. They fed kids contaminated food and injected them with hepatitis infected blood samples, all in the name of science. The most twisted part, parents were told this was the only way their children could get into the overcrowded facility. Sign the consent form allowing your disabled child to be infected with a dangerous liver disease or find care somewhere else. Dr. Saul Krugman, the lead researcher, defended the experiments by claiming these kids would get sick anyway in the filthy conditions, so why not give them hepatitis on purpose and take detailed notes? This wasn't some rogue operation.

[00:00:50]The study had federal funding, institutional approval, and was [music] published in respected medical journals.

[00:00:56]For 14 years, doctors at Willowbrook proved that the line between healing and harming can disappear when society decides certain lives matter less than others. The children never [music] had a choice. Their parents barely had one either.