The grisly trials that gave poison to prisoners | Hacker News Reader

The grisly trials that gave poison to prisoners

nature.com

37 pointsPetiver25 comments

> Hair-raising sixteenth-century reports emphasize the tests’ control arms and societal benefit.

not uncommon in our present that scientists engage in such things. Ethically there is no difference in this to today's psychologists and MD's working on enhanced interrogation techniques. The type of people employed by CCP in Uyghurs camps, ICE facilities, or US black sites (and US prisons) that are routinely used for torture.

Compared to what we do today the content in this story is just a side-course to a whole menu of evil. The real shocker is that every one of us is capable[3] of these kind of acts (whether people recognize that ability inside themselves or not)

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[0] The Role of Medical Professionals in Detention and Interrogation Operations https://detaineetaskforce.org/pdf/Chapter-6_Role-of-Medical-...

[1] "Enhanced" interrogation of detainees: do psychologists and psychiatrists participate? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2561033/

[2] Mental Health Professionals in the “Enhanced” Interrogation Room https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/mental-health-professi...

[3] The Act of Killing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2375605/

Your third footnote is no good. It's about a Cold War backed military exterminating "communists." While that was a common thing for a large portion of the 20th century, there's no evidence presented in that movie that the characteristics of the mass murderers of penis-stealing witch-communist students are universal.

what in your opinion would be a better example of the (rather obvious) point I'm trying to make?

I think you have cause and effect backwards.

Deciding the truth and then finding the evidence to support it after we've decided what the truth is happens to be a big problem in our society today.

It's not obvious that every person is capable of horrible evil even though there are times and places where it seems that there are many normal people willing to participate.

> I think you have cause and effect backwards.

I don't. I'm speaking from personal experience with the horror humans are capable of inflicting.

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