Review by Choice Review
Guerrini (history and environmental studies, Univ. of California-Santa Barbara) provides an excellent survey of human experimentation on both humans and animals. Her attention to interactions between experimenters and the societies in which they live offers a valuable sociohistorical context for understanding today's ethical debates over cloning, genetic engineering, and the breeding of animals to supply human body parts. Although the literature on the ethics of animal experimentation is now considerable, the topic is rarely coupled with concerns about the use of human subjects, but is more commonly contained within works focused on animal welfare or rights. Similarly, while a few notorious episodes of the abuse of humans by Nazi doctors and other scientists have been well publicized, a general history of human experimentation is lacking. Guerrini's dual investigation yields valuable connections; e.g., the 1950s race against polio involved the sacrifice of millions of primates as well as administration of risky new vaccines to handicapped and retarded humans incapable of informed consent. Aside from the questionable treatment of both animals and humans, the animal model was misleading, and the use of monkeys to produce vaccines may have introduced new viruses, perhaps even HIV/AIDS, to humans. A fine interdisciplinary work. ^BSumming Up: Recommended. General readers; lower-division undergraduates through graduate students. W. P. Hogan Eastern Michigan University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
