

Medical experiments could be carried out in the United States on uninformed patients under a rule change proposed by the Food & Drug Administration, and a California pro-family group is raising the red flag.



"Informed consent is a touchstone in regards to human freedom in medical issues," Richard D. Ackerman, of the Pro-Family Law Center, told WorldNetDaily yesterday. "It's been held in common law for hundreds of years.



"The minute you allow a doctor to cross that line, between the patient or patient's representive being in the know, you've given over complete control to the doctor," he said.



He described the experiments as being "Nazi-like" and said he used that term intentionally.



"This is reminiscent of the days of Hitler and Dr. Mengele. The idea that research can be performed on a human being without informed consent is antithetical to the very meaning of human self-determination and dignity," he said.



Josef Mengele was the Nazi leader who performed a wide range of scientifically-useless and mostly-fatal experiments on humans during Hitler's era.



The Nazis, led by Mengele's experimentation desires, "conducted dangerous medical experiments on innocent people without consent. Many people died as a result of the Nazis' human experiments and many others suffered a lifetime of post-experimental trauma and injury," the center said.



One of Mengele's experiments, for example, reportedly tried to create conjoined people by sewing children together.



The plan is in a rule proposed by the FDA regarding "emergency research" that scientists and doctors could conduct on unconscious or otherwise incapacitated patients, Ackerman said.



The proposed rules, known as "Guidance for Institutional Review Boards, Clinical Investigators, and Sponsors: Exception from Informed Consent for Emergency Research," are scheduled for a public hearing next month.



The proposal would allow the use of any "investigational new drug application" or "investigational device" on people who have a life-threatening medical condition for which other treatments are unsatisfactory. It applies in situations where the patients are unconscious and cannot give consent and none of their representatives is available.



"Such 'emergency research' could be conducted without any informed consent from the patient or their designated representative," Ackerman noted.



"PFLC does not accept the idea that the U.S. government can order any human experimentation without valid informed consent," Ackerman said in a statement. "PFLC is urging all Christians, Jews, and patients' rights advocates to challenge these proposed regulations."



This new battle over the value of life is very important, Ackerman said.



"If a human being can be experimented on with absolutely no consent, we have lost all sense of human dignity. While our nation long ago lost much of its respect for preborn children, we attempted to hold on to the principles of informed consent and human dignity for adults. These new regulations would chip away at the little remaining respect that our nation has for human life."



The Pro-Family Law Center is planning an opinion letter to be sent to the president and the FDA, and will be working on a petition drive as well, officials said.



Ackerman said the biggest danger rests for the homeless, or other citizens in marginalized groups, because they often don't have anyone to act as a representative if they are involved in an accident or become ill.



"There will be a subclass of patients who can't give consent themselves, or don't have a representative," he said. That concept was the same used by the Nazis, who considered some groups of people less than human.



Ackerman, besides leading the Pro-Family Law Center, is a published author and contributing writer to Whistleblower Magazine and WorldNetDaily.



He's defended the Pledge of Allegiance before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and U.S. Supreme Court and battled for religious liberty and to defeat same-sex marriage.







