HC Deb 15 October 1946 vol 427 cc792-3
49. Mr. Peter Freeman

asked the Lord President of the Council if his attention has been called to experiments on 45 children performed by Dr. J. D. King, of the Medical Research Council, over periods of six months and two years, such experiments being calculated in the opinion of medical authorities at the time seriously to injure the teeth of the children; why children from an orphanage were chosen; and what action he proposes to take in the matter.

The Lord President of the Council (Mr. Herbert Morrison)

The investigation to which my hon. Friend refers involved giving a small extra ration of sweets to a number of children whose dental condition was under observation. The children were kept under constant supervision throughout to ensure that they suffered no ill effects from the experiment, which would have been stopped at once if there seemed to be any danger of this. In fact, as had been expected, there were no ill effects, and I gather that the children thoroughly enjoyed the experiment. It was necessary to study children in institutions owing to the need for an adequate number of subjects living under identical conditions on a known diet.

Mr. Freeman

Is it fair for orphan children to be experimented upon in this way?

Mr. Morrison

My hon. Friend is really in danger of losing all the electoral support of the other children in his constituency.