U.S. national security officials say they have made important changes to their experiments on human subjects since a botched research project in 1953 led to a CIA scientist drugged with LSD falling to his death from a 13th-floor hotel window.
As American innovators race to win an advantage in artificial intelligence, biotech and other emerging technology, U.S. officials said there are rules in place to keep government-funded research from going haywire again.
The Army’s Kimberly L. Odam told The Washington Times the Defense Department’s experiments involving human subjects are moral and lawful.
Ms. Odam directs the Office of Human and Animal Research Oversight from Fort Detrick, Maryland, and she said her team ensures rigorous regulations are enforced on taxpayer-funded research.
The U.S. rules, according to officials, prevent the type of experiments performed in countries such as China, which, in an infamous 2021 case, blended human and money genetic material.
“There are additional oversight that the public can feel confident that the activities are not only required by the DOD and necessary but that they are ethically acceptable and legally appropriate,” Ms. Odam said on the sidelines of the Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research conference.
The conference in Washington attracted thousands of researchers and scientists engaged in a variety of cutting-edge studies, including experiments on human subjects. In a presentation on the Defense Department’s human research protections, Ms. Odam touted a study involving an app to help people with mild traumatic brain injuries overcome dizziness.
Other examples of human subjects research involve genetics, interrogation science, and the testing of such things as facial recognition and algorithms, according to an FBI presentation at the conference.
National security officials, however, are aware people fear government programs resemble something closer to the Jason Bourne film franchise, which features a fictional government operative transformed into a ruthless assassin by reckless bureaucrats.
The popular imagination has run wild since revelations of the government’s role in the 1953 death of scientist Frank Olson.
Mr. Olson was working at Fort Detrick and was unwittingly drugged with LSD in a CIA mind-control experiment that ended with him falling to his death from a New York hotel window. The tragedy was dramatized in the 2017 Netflix miniseries “Wormwood.”
After word spread of the government’s role in the scientist’s death, then-President Clinton signed an executive order in 1997 applying special rules to certain human subjects research, according to the FBI’s Thomas Motta.
Mr. Motta’s presentation for the research conference identified the emergence of details on the CIA senior scientist’s death as an animating moment for the government to change.
In 1998, the FBI established an institutional review board scrutinizing human research, which Mr. Motta has helped lead since 2012.
The board meets monthly and examines the FBI’s work on human subjects. The bureau’s longest-running human subject research project is focused on serial killers, according to Mr. Motta.
The U.S. government now appears eager to prevent unknowing participants in its research.
Mr. Motta’s presentation makes clear the FBI wants to prevent government experiments on vulnerable people.
“FBI does NOT have authority to study “vulnerable populations” — pregnant women, children, prisoners, mentally incapacitated persons,” Mr. Motta’s presentation said.
The National Security Agency observes similar restrictions and prohibits research involving prisoners and detainees, minors, and pregnant women, according to presentation slides for a panel featuring intelligence officials on Wednesday.
Some of America’s adversaries and competitors do not care for such rules. For example, Chinese authorities promised a free health check but instead collected genetic material to better track Uyghurs, a Muslim minority, according to a 2019 New York Times report. The Chinese authorities reportedly relied on American academics for assistance.
In 2021, a China-led research team blended man and monkeys by injecting human stem cells into monkey embryos. The researchers allowed the resulting creature to grow for 19 days before terminating it. The experiment sparked fears of potential real-world Frankenstein monsters.
The U.S. government has rules and processes intended to protect humans from such research, according to the Pentagon.
Stephanie Bruce, who oversees the Defense Department’s Office of Human Research Protections, said participants in government studies provide informed consent and her department ensures people do not feel forced to take part by superiors in their chain of command.
“DOD regulations strive to minimize command influence by not allowing those in the chain to participate in recruitment of those in their chain,” Ms. Bruce told conference attendees. “An ombudsperson is required for recruitment greater than minimum studies.”
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.