This is one of those cases I think of whenever I hear about " you can't legislate morality". The doctors had a MORAL obligation to treat those men whether or not they had a legal one. Now they would have a legal one. Is that legislating morality?
For god sakes I am a Phlebotomist and I took the Hipocratic oath and I follow it to a tee every day... Now an abortion doctor in my opinion can’t be considered a doctor due to him breaking his Hipacratic oath.
The issue here is FRAUD, not morality. The unwitting test subjects were TOLD they were being treated when they were not. Fraud is actionable and since the government was involved, IIRC, it should be held to account by the heirs of those who were so misused. There is no MORALITY involved; MORALITY is what you do when you’re alone. ETHICS are what’re involved, as ethics are how you deal with others. And ethics CAN on occasion be legislated. This would appear to be such a case.
What most people mean by “you can’t legislate morality” is that legislation can only go a very short distance in influencing moral beliefs. It cannot be the mainstay of morality. This isn’t just a libertarian theme; the noted Christian apologist C. S. Lewis made this point as well.