Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima - Hardcover

Lindee, M. Susan

 
9780226482378: Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 0226482375 ISBN 13: 9780226482378
Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 1994

Inhaltsangabe

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August, 1945, unleashed a force as mysterious as it was deadly. In 1946, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), under the auspices of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), was formed as a permanent American agency in Japan with the official mission of studying the medical effects of radiation on the survivors. The next ten years saw the ABCC's most intensive research on the genetic effects of radiation, and up until 1974 the ABCC scientists published papers on the effects of radiation on ageing, life span, fertility and disease. This text provides a comprehensive history of the ABCC's research on how radiation affected the survivors of the atomic bomb. Arguing that Cold War politics and cultural values fundamentally shaped the work of the ABCC, it describes how the project raised disturbing questions about the ethical implications of using human subjects in scientific research. How did the politics of the emerging Cold War affect the scientists' biomedical research and findings? How did the ABCC document and publicly present the effects of radiation? Why did the ABCC refuse to provide medical treatment to the survivors? Through a detailed examination of ABCC policies, archival materials, the minutes of committee meetings, newspaper accounts and interviews with ABCC scientists, Lindee explores how political and cultural interests were reflected in the day-to-day operations of the research programme.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

M. Susan Lindee is assistant professor in the Department of the History and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 unleashed a form of energy as mysterious as it was deadly. Suffering Made Real is the compelling story of the first attempts to understand how radiation affected the survivors of the atomic bomb and subsequent generations of Japanese. Arguing that Cold War politics and cultural values fundamentally shaped this scientific research, M. Susan Lindee examines the daily workings, expectations, purposes, and limitations of a project that raises disturbing questions about the ethical implications of using human subjects in scientific research. In 1946, an American scientific agency, the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), was established in Japan to study the long-term biomedical effects of radiation on the survivors. Over the next twenty-nine years, American scientists and physicians, with funding from the Atomic Energy Commission, published hundreds of papers documenting the effects of radiation on aging, life span, fertility, and disease. In 1975, the agency was renamed and reorganized to permit greater Japanese input. How did the emerging Cold War affect the work of the ABCC? What problems seemed most important to ABCC scientists in their interpretation and public presentation of their data? Why did the ABCC have a "no-treatment" policy toward the survivors, one that conflicted with the ABCC's actual practices? Through a detailed examination of ABCC policies, archival materials, the minutes of committee meetings, newspaper accounts, and interviews with ABCC scientists, Lindee demonstrates how political and cultural interests were reflected in the day-to-day operations of this controversial research program. Set in aperiod of conflicting views on nuclear weapons and nuclear power, Suffering Made Real follows the course of a politically charged research program and reveals in detail how politics and cultural values can shape the conduct, results, and uses of science. As scientists, politicians, and health care professionals have become sensitized to the ethical problems of research on human subjects, this book speaks not only to the painful legacy of the atomic bomb, but also to contemporary concerns about the biomedical use of potentially dangerous substances on patients, children, prisoners, and other vulnerable citizens.

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Verlag
University of Chicago Press
Erscheinungsdatum
1994
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0226482375
ISBN 13 
9780226482378
Einband
Tapa dura
Anzahl der Seiten
295
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar

Weitere beliebte Ausgaben desselben Titels

9780226482385: Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima

Vorgestellte Ausgabe

ISBN 10:  0226482383 ISBN 13:  9780226482385
Verlag: University of Chicago Press, 1997
Softcover