Albert Stevens

Albert Stevens

Joseph Hamilton with radio sodium experiment 97401413

Albert Stevens (1887–1966), also known as "Patient CAL-1," was a notable figure in the history of radiation research due to his survival for nearly 21 years after being injected with plutonium without his knowledge. This incident is one of the most infamous in the history of radiobiology and raises significant ethical questions regarding human experimentation.

Background

Albert Stevens was a house painter by profession who was incorrectly diagnosed with gastric cancer in 1945. As part of a secret Manhattan Project experiment to study the effects of plutonium on the human body, Stevens was injected with a massive dose of plutonium-239 on May 14, 1945, by doctors at the University of Chicago’s Metallurgical Laboratory, without his informed consent. The amount of plutonium he received is the largest dose ever recorded in a human. Remarkably, Stevens did not have cancer; his actual condition was a benign stomach ulcer.

The Experiment

The purpose of the experiment was to understand the metabolism of plutonium in the human body and its potential effects. Stevens was chosen because his presumed terminal cancer diagnosis made him a "suitable" subject in the eyes of the researchers. Over the course of the experiment, his health was closely monitored, and his excretions were collected for analysis. Despite the high levels of plutonium, Stevens lived for another 20 years, dying of heart failure rather than radiation sickness or cancer, which were the expected outcomes of such significant radiation exposure.

Ethical Implications

The experiment on Albert Stevens, along with similar experiments conducted on other individuals, later became a subject of ethical scrutiny. These cases highlighted the lack of informed consent and the use of human beings as subjects in potentially lethal experiments without their knowledge or understanding. The revelation of these experiments led to public outrage and prompted significant changes in the regulations governing human experimentation, including the requirement for informed consent.

Legacy

Albert Stevens' case is often cited in discussions on medical ethics, particularly in the context of informed consent and the ethical treatment of human subjects in medical research. His experience contributed to the development of stricter ethical standards for human experimentation, including the establishment of Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to oversee and approve all human subject research.