Chester M. Southam

Chester M. Southam
Born(1919-10-04)October 4, 1919
DiedApril 15, 2002(2002-04-15) (aged 82)
Alma mater
Known forNon-consensual injection of cancer cells into healthy patients
Scientific career
FieldsOncology
Institutions

Chester Milton Southam (October 4, 1919 – April 15, 2002)[1] was an immunologist and oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Cornell University Medical College; he went to Thomas Jefferson University in 1971 and worked there until the end of his career.[1] He ran many experiments involving the injection of live cancer cells into human subjects, without disclosing that they were cancer cells, and using subjects with questionable ability to consent, such as incarcerated people and senile patients in long-term care at a hospital.[2] The New York State Attorney General encouraged the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York to take away Southam's medical license.[2] Regardless, he went on to be president of the American Association for Cancer Research. His work was labeled by both modern scientists and his contemporaries as highly dangerous and unethical.[3]

  1. ^ a b "Paid Notice: Deaths Southam, Chester Milton". The New York Times. April 10, 2002.
  2. ^ a b Skloot, Rebecca (2010). The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway Paperbacks. pp. 134–135.
  3. ^ "NYC's forgotten cancer scandal" (PDF).