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The Minnesota starvation experiment
BBC ^ | 19 January 2014 | Janet Ball

Posted on 01/20/2014 11:12:53 AM PST by Sawdring

In 1944, 26-year-old Marshall Sutton was a young idealist who wanted to change the world for the better. As a conscientious objector and Quaker, he refused to fight in the war but he still craved the chance to help his country.

"I wanted to identify with the suffering in the world at that time," he says. "I wanted to do something for society. I wanted to put myself in a little danger."

That danger came, unexpectedly, in the shape of a small brochure with a picture of children on the front.

"Will you starve that they be better fed?" it asked. It was a call for volunteers to act as human guinea pigs in a medical experiment at the University of Minnesota.

(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: Minnesota
KEYWORDS: starvation; wwii
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To: informavoracious

I was a kid, it was confusing... :p


21 posted on 01/20/2014 1:35:08 PM PST by GeronL (Extra Large Cheesy Over-Stuffed Hobbit)
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To: Sawdring

Interesting story. I’ve been reading a lot of WWII books lately. Quakers were mentioned several times for outstanding work as combat medics.


22 posted on 01/20/2014 1:38:53 PM PST by nascarnation (I'm hiring Jack Palladino to investigate Baraq's golf scores.)
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To: Resolute Conservative

That wasn’t lumber. It was a composite material, essentially particle board.

Like pretty much all such composite wood materials, it doesn’t react well to moisture, I don’t care what it’s treated with.


23 posted on 01/20/2014 1:44:29 PM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: Sawdring

This was a perfectly valid scientific experiment, with the laudable goal of determining how best to help victims of starvation recover.

Some of the comments here are odd. There was no political slant to these experiments and the participants were all volunteers.


24 posted on 01/20/2014 1:49:47 PM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: Sherman Logan

I don’t think I could do that to myself if I had access to food at home or at work. I agree with your sentiment, but don’t you just start feeding people that are starving and let nature take its course?


25 posted on 01/20/2014 2:29:58 PM PST by Sawdring
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To: Sawdring

The idea was to determine what the physical and psychological effects of starvation were and how to address them most effectively.

It’s been known for a loonnnggg time that if starving people are just suddenly permitted to start eating all they want, many of them will die.


26 posted on 01/20/2014 2:54:54 PM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: Eric in the Ozarks

Gus Hall was a Finn from Minnesota. That’s right, folks! Minnestoopid gave us the longest running Commie candidate for President. Now we have a Commie in the White House.


27 posted on 01/20/2014 4:04:45 PM PST by Fred Hayek (The Democratic Party is now the operational arm of the CPUSA)
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To: Fred Hayek
Gus Hall's actual name was Hallberg. He abbreviated it to Hall because he thought it sounded too Jewish for his Communist buddies.

I knew a nephew of Gus’ in Minnesota who told me a funny recollection. He said the family could always tell when Uncle Gus was about due in town by the sudden appearance of telephone repairmen, up on utility poles at various locations and in local coffee shops where Gus was known to visit.

28 posted on 01/20/2014 6:14:11 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks ("Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth.")
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