The 20th century is recorded as one the progressive centuries of the past but it is never easy for those who have authority to proceed with such an evolutionary phase without being cruel. This leads to the idea of different logical trials on people. Nowadays we have moral commissions that choose whether restorative research can be performed on humans, however, back in the day there was no such concept. Pharmaceuticals or fatal compound weapons that were created would be tried on genuine people to see the full degree of their adequacy. Sometimes other psychological and medical experiments were conducted in which some disease or other chemical compounds would be induced in the subjects so that their immediate and delayed reactions could be studied.

While the subjects of these experiments varied, most of the times these would be prisoners of the war. The thread of these studies stretches all over the world but most of the experiments were carried out in developed countries. Researchers were not sure of the consequences in almost all of the experiments except for those which are related to psychology as in this particular subject the approach was unprofessional and unethical. To highlight the dark era of research that we had to go through, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most horrible experiments that wouldn’t be allowed today.

15. Nazi Experimentation On Prisoners Of War

During World War II (early to mid-1940’Naziszis conducted several cruel experiments on humans. A large number of prisoners and children were forced to live in their concentrated camps so that nazi party could carry out trials. more than 30 types of medical experiments were conducted without the consent of the victims, who endured indefinable agony, mutilation, lasting incapacity and even deaths.

Out of many brutal experiments, the ones that caused the most deaths were Sulfanilamide, high altitude experiments, freezing, tuberculosis, Phosgene Gas. Artificial insemination which cost the lives of thousands of people and the most famous experiment was conducted on more than 1000 pairs of twins in which around 200 survived.

14. The Monster Experiment On Orphans

In 1939 a very malign psychological experiment was carried out and the subjects of this one were children living in Davenport, Iowa. Around 22 orphan children were chosen to perform this evil psychological trial which disturbed their potential to learn and speak with their full confidence through out their lives.

The procedure of this experiment was very simple, subjects were divided into two groups after which half of the children were given an appreciating and encouraging speech therapy while the other half were given a downgrading and discouraging speech therapy which resulted as half of them lost their confidence to express whatever they wanted to and even ended up thinking that they didn’t have a right to speak at all. Even this was not enough so their mistakes were pointed out every time they made a speech mistake. They were called stutterers and this caused a permanent psychological disorder as they were only at their learning stage.

Wendell Johnson and his student Mary Tudor were responsible for conducting this experiment but the truth of their actions was not revealed for a long time. Later in 2001 the university of lowa publicly confessed and apologized for what they did in the past but it didn’t make much difference for the orphans as it was too late by then.

13. Effects Of Nuclear Tests On Residents Of Marshall Island

A large number of nuclear weapon experiments were conducted during the creation of the nuclear bomb after 1945 on barren lands, oceans and on decently populated islands.

In March of 1954, the U.S government decided to conduct a nuclear test known as Project 4.1 near the Marshall Islands. The inhabitants of these islands were exposed to a lot of radiations and while there was an increase in skin disease, those effects were still not severe enough to be associated with a nuclear experiment. The actual effects started showing later on which involved thyroid cancer and skin cancer while the affected women gave birth to children who were mentally and physically handicapped.

After the experiment, the U.S government had to pay millions of dollars in damages to the thousands of Marshallese living on the islands.

12. Radiation Experiments On Soldiers Without Permission

Long before Project 4.1 and its effects on the Marshallese people, another major nuclear project was carried out by known as the Manhattan Project which paved the way for nuclear weapons that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. To test the effects of radiation on humans, the United States along with the support of UK and Canada injected soldiers with isotopes of Uranium and Plutonium without their knowledge and consent.

This is not all as the subjects were not only soldiers but also some of the unsuspecting patients admitted to nearby hospitals. It is estimated that almost 24 people died as a result of these experiments and hundreds more suffered some serious radioactive injuries after being dosed with the highly reactive chemicals.

11. Testing The Effects Of Mustard Gas On Soldiers

For the very purpose of war when all the chemical weapons were to be tested the most difficult task was to check the effectiveness of the Mustard gas on a human body. The mustard gas which was delegated as a concoction weapon could not have volunteers so it was experimented on the war soldiers who had zero knowledge that a potentially lethal gas was being tested on them. The most immediate reaction of this bio-weapon was a severe pain in their outer body followed by serious itching on the skin.

Sulfur mustard is a very hard chemical compound which not only destroys the skin but it also effects the lungs. Full exposure to this compound can cause blisters on the body and not only that, it also causes unexpected blindness of the eyes exposed to this gas.

10. Experiments During Development For Agent Orange

During the Vietnam War (1961 to 1971) the United States enhanced their possibilities and applied new tactics in order to win the war. Agent Orange, a bio chemical weapon was one of the most prominent ones. It is a complex chemical compound weapon made from herbicide and defoliant. But before any of this was put out in the field, it was tested on the prisoners under the guidance of Dr. Albert Kligman and this research was funded by the U.S Army and Dow.

When it was first tested, the victims would be injected with the chemical which resulted in some serious chloracne. It was assumed that this would be the only reaction of this experiment but many decades later, several birth defects and major spine issue were found. While these were only tests, Agent Orange was employed on a much larger scale when it was used during the Vietnam War to clear forests and land. It is estimated that almost 4 million people were exposed to this dangerous bio chemical weapon.

9. Poison Experiments By The Soviets

While every other country was out experimenting on humans during the World War, the Soviets decided that they weren’t to be left behind anyone either. The chamber that was used by Soviet researchers was actually a secret lab for the creation of deadly weapons with the use of poisonous chemical compounds. One of the biggest tasks that the Soviets wanted to achieve was the creation of a poison that would get the job done but also couldn’t be traced. This resulted in the creation of the C-2, a poison that not only killed its victim but was not visible during an autopsy. The subjects of this research were prisoners from Gulags who would not survive a poisonous doze and would die within 15 minutes.

This was not all though as Sulfur mustard, ricin, curare and digitoxin were also tested on prisoners here. They would be categorized by their age groups as the resistance of human body varies age to age.

8. The Aversion Project For Homosexuals

In South Africa back in 1970’s the Aversion Project conducted by the South African army was one of the strangest and worst human experiments in history. While it was termed as research but it was more an act of exploitation or oppression. They proceeded without any kind of concealment and prevarication as they subjected their own soldiers. Anyone with even the slightest possibility of being a homosexual was selected without his/her consent and was then sent to a military psychiatric unit for the purpose of horrendous experiments.

During this research cells, various medications and treatments were forced on the victims which also included shock therapy and hormones. If these didn’t work then synthetic emasculation and sex reassignment surgeries would be performed.

7. Conducting Operation Midnight Climax

The operation Midnight Climax experiment was a bit different from the others but it was equally unethical. The CIA decided to conduct this experiment throughout the major cities like New York and San Francisco. In this experiment, special rooms were arranged where the real researchers could hide behind the “two-way mirror” to observe the apparent and obscure reactive behaviors of their victims.

To get this done, the folks at CIA hired some prostitutes to lure their possible clients. When brought back to the rooms, the clients were dosed with LSD and a combination of other drugs. Most of the victims used to be unaware of what was happening while the researchers recorded important data. Some of them even went ahead and called the whole experiment a lot of fun.

6. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

This experiment was said to be done for research purposes as some of the others on this list but in actual, it was more comparable to racial discrimination. Between 1932 and 1972, a few researchers decided to use African Americans as test subjects. They were injected with a sexually transmitted disease, more specifically Syphilis without any official consent according to all the records. Since Syphilis is an STD, it affects not only the victims but anyone that they sexually come into contact with.

Around 400 illiterate African Americans were chosen for this experiment during the above-mentioned timeline. Some of the few included assurances were of proper medical treatment and burial arrangements. More than 120 males died as a direct result of the experiment and several women were effected by this disease. As a result, twenty children inherited Syphilis.

5. Poison Experiments In North Korean Prison

While the North Korean claims time to time again that they have always humanly treated their prisoner and they have never gone against any of their human rights. While no one has many reports or any solid evidence but a former prisoner in North Korea came forward and told the world what actually happens back there in the cells

She claims to have witnessed that either it was for research or just plain torture, but around fifty women were forced to eat cabbage leaves. Those leaves were poisoned and women could not refuse to take them as their lives and those of their families were at stake. The poison was so strong that all of them were dead within 20 minutes after squirming in extreme pain.

4. Gas Chamber Trials On Prisoners

Another case from North Korean prison cells came forth when one of the former prisoners described that there are well equipped laboratories for special trials. Several torturing tools and poisonous gasses were installed in there and victims were healthy people who belonged to the same family.

He further described the account of one such family who were subjected to one of the poison gas experiments. The chamber was sealed after which a poison gas or suffocation gas was released in considerable quantity. Researchers observed the results while the family suffocated to their deaths. The worst part of the entire ordeal was that the parents kept trying to resuscitate their kids as long as they could breathe themselves.

3. Japanese Army Unit 731 Experiments On POWS

The Japanese Army was strong and cruel in World War II, not only on the battlefield but inside their prisons and research labs as well. Commander Shiro Ishii and his Unit 731 were in charge of all these heinous experiments which were regularly performed on prisoners of war.

The unit had 2 prisons under their command inside which limbs of some of the prisoners were amputated, reattached somewhere else. Other experiments included testing explosives and weapons on the prisoners for studying the effects. Vivisection was on the top of the list in terms of cruelty but frostbite, Syphilis and some other experiments were also included in their daily schedule. It is estimated that almost 12,000 prisoners died as a direct result of these experiments which makes them one of the evilest on this list.

2. Infecting Puerto Rico With Cancer

If you look up the names of researchers who have contributed to the fight against cancer, you will come across the Cornelis P. Rhoads, a doctor who was responsible for conducting one of the most horrible experiments in history. One of the really unfortunate things was that he was never held accountable for whatever he did. This research was conducted by the sponsorship of Rockefeller Foundation and they had nearly 200 patients in the hospital.

The Puerto Ricans were said to be strong and with high resistance but Rhoads kept injecting the cancer cells randomly even going so far to say that the Puerto Ricans were some of the dirtiest and degenerate race of men on the planet. Cells worked but not as sufficiently and effectively as he expected. By the end of his experiments, almost 20 people had died and no cure was ever found. The irony is that he was also appointed as the vice-president of the American Cancer Society a few years down the road.

1. The MKULTRA Mind Control Project

One of the most interesting experiments on this list is the MKULTRA mind control project which was actually carried out by the CIA and no, this was not taken from the plot of an action movie. We know that in such situations, uncountable experiments have been performed all over the world to gain knowledge and find clues. This leads to an ecstatic approach in mainly two ways. First, the researchers defy to fall within limitations and second, is the actual use of drugs in order to investigate the results.

Under this experiment, the CIA worked on several chemicals to hypnotize and interrogate their victims. The crazy part is that some of their own employees were subjected to these along with some prisoners, criminals, and other random people from the public. This was against the Nuremberg Code which the U.S had agreed upon.