Disturbing news out of Israel:
Four senior doctors at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot and the Hartzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera were arrested yesterday on suspicion of carrying out hundreds of illegal experiments on elderly patients without their consent.
A report by a Health Ministry inquiry committee, whose findings were revealed in Haaretz, found that illegal and unethical experiments were conducted over several years, in a systematic manner, on thousands of elderly patients. At least one patient is suspected of having died as a direct result of one of the experiments. In addition, 12 patients died either during or shortly after one of the experiments, but the incident was not reported to the Health Ministry or investigated, in contravention of the law.
At least four doctors at Hartzfeld and Kaplan became known as geriatrics experts on the basis of research allegedly based on illegal experiments. Some doctors submitted articles to medical journals in Israel and abroad on the basis of the experiments, which appear to have provided a foundation for their professional and academic advancement.
The Health Ministry report found that doctors violated the law by experimenting on patients who either did not provide consent or were not mentally capable of providing consent. Some of the experiments did not have any medical or scientific benefit, and some were conducted even though senior doctors warned that they were illegal and unethical.
Read more from Haaretz. . .