Four top doctors arrested over illegal human experimentation - Haaretz

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Wed., April 29, 2009 Iyyar 5, 5769

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		Kaplan-Hartzfeld deputy director Dr. Shmuel Levi. (Motti Kimche)

Last update - 00:00 09/10/2006

Four top doctors arrested over illegal human experimentation

By Ran Reznik, Haaretz Correspondent

Four senior doctors at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot and Hartzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera suspected of illegally experimenting on humans were arrested Monday.

The national fraud squad has opened an investigation into the affair. The four are suspected of abuse, aggravated assault, causing death through negligence, fraud, forgery, breach of statutory duty, and disruption of legal proceedings.

The Tel Aviv Magistrate's Court on Monday extended by three days the remands of Kaplan-Hartzfeld deputy director Dr. Shmuel Levi and Dr. Nadia Kagensky. The third suspect, Dr. Alona Smirnov, was released to house arrest for five days, and the fourth suspect was released following an investigation.

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Police searched the houses of all four suspects and confiscated incriminating documents.

Many of the details of the affair were revealed in a series of Haaretz articles on the subject, as well as Channel 2 TV's investigative documentary series "Fact."

In May 2005, the State Comptroller's Office slammed the hospitals over the illegal experimentation in a report.

According to a report issued by the investigations department of the Health Ministry and exposed by Haaretz, the hospitals in Gedera and Rehovot conducted illegal and unethical testing on thousands of elderly patients for years.

During one of the incidents described, twelve patients died either during the experiments or shortly after they took place, but these incidents were not reported to the Health Ministry or investigated, as is required by law.

The Health Ministry's director general filed a complaint with police following an internal inquiry into the affair and the fraud squad confiscated from the hospitals many documents pertaining to the experimentation.

The ministry's investigation revealed that some of the patients were included in the experiments without providing their consent, while some of them suffered from severe mental damage, which prevented them from being legally capable of providing consent.

According to the report, some of the tests did not even yield any medically or scientifically beneficial results. Furthermore, some of the experiments were conducted despite top doctors' warnings that they were illegal or unethical.

The report voices harsh criticism of the Helsinki committee at the hospitals, responsible for approving the experiments and failing to protect the public's best interests.

The ministry's report further condemns the hospital's management for failing to address the complaints and information handed to it over the past few years, describing the flawed medical procedures.

According to the report, some doctors received promotions, both in their professional and academic careers, on the basis of the illegal tests. In some cases, the tests were used as the basis for research studies published in local and international medical journals.

At least four doctors at the hospitals were named as experts in Geriatrics based on the illegal tests they allegedly conducted along with their colleagues

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1.	Is Israel hell?	19:15	\|	Mea	09/10/06

2.	The elderly in Israel serve as guinea pigs?	19:32	\|	Keren	09/10/06

3.	Mea. Hell?	19:35	\|	Hubal	09/10/06

4.	Someone should experiment on #1	19:38	\|	Jul	09/10/06

5.	I watch the country that I love, fall apart, literally.	19:39	\|	Ron	09/10/06

6.	Mea	19:43	\|	Moses	09/10/06

7.	Another sad example of the lack of ethics of Israeli secularism	19:43	\|	Jon	09/10/06

8.	7: A Haredi barks	20:11	\|	David Teich	09/10/06

9.	No evidence the tests caused the deaths	20:39	\|	DB	09/10/06

10.	Policy of rigorous disclosure	20:40	\|	Margie in Tel Aviv	09/10/06

11.	Is America Hell?	20:43	\|	Harry D	09/10/06

12.	Jews experimenting on humans?	20:52	\|	Al Green	09/10/06

13.	never saw	21:08	\|	*	09/10/06

14.	Oy Vey	21:15	\|	Alex	09/10/06

15.	Solution	21:16	\|	Joe	09/10/06

16.	Medical authorities has legal borders. Part I.	21:16	\|	H.H.M	09/10/06

17.	Medical authorities has legal borders. Part II	21:17	\|	H.H.M	09/10/06

18.	Medical authorities has legal borders. Part III	21:17	\|	H.H.M	09/10/06

19.	Follow the money	21:21	\|	Alex	09/10/06

20.	Four top doctors	21:23	\|	Duquesnois	09/10/06

21.	Project Kosher Soylent Green?	21:40	\|	Sam The Sham	09/10/06

22.	Reviled by it all.......	21:42	\|	Imran Ahmed	09/10/06

23.	Don`t these doctors have father`s and mother`s?	21:46	\|	bat yam	09/10/06

24.	and the accident of yesterday	21:50	\|	TALKBACK OBSERVER	09/10/06

25.	Awful	22:05	\|	Jimmy	09/10/06

26.	Sick Medical Experiments	22:13	\|	A. Magnus	09/10/06

27.	"Unethical testing on THOUSANDS of elderly people?"	22:35	\|	Maureen Ann	09/10/06

28.	Paging Dr. Mengele	22:35	\|	Hippocrates	09/10/06

29.	The nature of the tests?	22:40	\|	Efox	09/10/06

30.	To Duquesnois	22:49	\|	S. Plisner	09/10/06

31.	Illegal Medical Research	22:52	\|	Max	09/10/06

32.	Medcal Experimenataion	01:47	\|	Sue	10/10/06

33.	Experimentation	01:55	\|	Sue	10/10/06

34.	human experimentation	06:30	\|	James	10/10/06

35.	Joe #15, Solution	07:12	\|	Jon Jaye	10/10/06

36.	To Harry D. #11	07:58	\|	Mike	10/10/06

37.	The devil`s advocate	08:01	\|	Moystakiaz	10/10/06

38.	good thing they got caught	09:30	\|	rose	10/10/06

39.	Mengele? Does size matter?	09:37	\|	Fritz	10/10/06

40.	Why so long?	10:14	\|	Jerrym	10/10/06

41.	HEADLINES.Now for some hard facts.None in this article.Why?	10:18	\|	PETER SM	10/10/06

42.	# 37 The devil`s advocate	10:18	\|	Sammy Soso	10/10/06

43.	Harry D	10:39	\|	Walid	10/10/06

44.	Medical experimentation	10:54	\|	One who knows	10/10/06

45.	Hippocrates	11:16	\|	Jasmine Murphy	10/10/06

46.	Fritz	11:18	\|	Jasmine Murphy	10/10/06

47.	a dose of reality	12:09	\|	nother one who knows	10/10/06

48.	If you see no problem with this evil,remember Nazis did this too!	12:32	\|	Moses	10/10/06

49.	#27 MAUREEN ANN-UNETHICAL TESTING OF AUSTRALIAN SHARKS	13:35	\|	gabriel	10/10/06

50.	maureen Ann	14:07	\|	ka	10/10/06

51.	to moses:they are monsters regardless	14:29	\|	r	10/10/06

52.	If a true story then no explanation will be acceptable	14:32	\|	Avrum	10/10/06

53.	THESE PHYSICIANS ARE HUMANITARIANS!!!	15:03	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	10/10/06

54.	To Sammy Soso	15:08	\|	Hastaroth	10/10/06

55.	No physical experimentation done	15:26	\|	skylark	10/10/06

56.	MY GOD	15:34	\|	John of Jordan	10/10/06

57.	The Article.	15:41	\|	David NIgel Braham	10/10/06

58.	Human Experimentation	15:46	\|	N	10/10/06

59.	Disgusted	15:53	\|	Alicia	10/10/06

60.	Do you remember Mengele?	15:59	\|	MAuricio Torres	10/10/06

61.	to redneck mike in georgia	16:04	\|	first ammendment pat	10/10/06

62.	#27 - Maureen Ann	16:05	\|	# BEN JABO	10/10/06

63.	Ethical Treatment	16:09	\|	* BEN JABO	10/10/06

64.	While You`re Experimenting!	16:13	\|	Yosemite Sam	10/10/06

65.	re: #1	16:13	\|	* BEN J ABO	10/10/06

66.	re: #1	16:14	\|	* BEN J ABO	10/10/06

67.	Shoot!	16:19	\|	Yosemite Sam	10/10/06

68.	John	16:24	\|	Joe	10/10/06

69.	#45 Jasmine Murphy -AUSTRALIA ??	16:33	\|	* BEN JABO	10/10/06

70.	hastaroth # 54	16:42	\|	Sammy Soso	10/10/06

71.	#67 - Yosemite Sam	16:43	\|	* BEN JABO	10/10/06

72.	I`m not australian ben jabo	16:54	\|	Jasmine Murphy	10/10/06

73.	John of Jordan: one sane voice	16:56	\|	Margie in Tel Aviv	10/10/06

74.	inclination toward evil...	17:02	\|	S	10/10/06

75.	Israel embarrasses us Jews	17:02	\|	Steve	10/10/06

76.	Israel needs to stop reporting against itself	17:04	\|	Steve	10/10/06

77.	How are "Jewish" doctors capable of such obscene acts?	17:22	\|	another physicist	10/10/06

78.	Kudos to the national Fraud Squad	17:25	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	10/10/06

79.	This, is a piss poor article	17:44	\|	Jacob Blues	10/10/06

80.	#71 Jasmine Murphy	17:51	\|	* BEN JABO	10/10/06

81.	Poor Yaacov, just can`t wait to bash Israel	17:52	\|	Jacob Blues	10/10/06

82.	Here`s a problem with the situation, John of Jordan	17:57	\|	Jacob Blues	10/10/06

83.	#78 - YAAKOV SULLIVAN	18:02	\|	* BEN JABO	10/10/06

84.	remember the Sephardi children	18:06	\|	wimble-the-whiner	10/10/06

85.	ben yavo	18:44	\|	Jasmine Murphy	10/10/06

86.	AWARDS DUE	18:50	\|	JEHIEL	10/10/06

87.	re; Steve #76	18:51	\|	T A Sheppard	10/10/06

88.	Ben Jabo	18:54	\|	Marilyn	10/10/06

89.	AWARDS DUE	19:00	\|	JEHIEL	10/10/06

90.	Israeli Doctors Experimented on Children	19:18	\|	michael	10/10/06

91.	Dear jacobblues, as usual I have no idea what you are talking abo	19:20	\|	Yaakov Sullivan	10/10/06

92.	Health Care for the Elderly in the U.S.	19:33	\|	Stacey	10/10/06

93.	#88 MARILYN -Australia	19:55	\|	* BEN JABO	10/10/06

94.	#85 - Jasmean Murfee	20:03	\|	* BEN JABO	10/10/06

95.	four top doctors arrested over illegal human experimentation	20:04	\|	katy	10/10/06

96.	People`s assumptions are sometimes fascinating	20:14	\|	Rowan Berkeley	10/10/06

97.	Yaakov Sullivan	20:31	\|	Ari ben Yisrael	10/10/06

98.	What Holocaust??	21:23	\|	Javier	10/10/06

99.	LESSON TO ALL...DON`T GROW OLD!!!	21:30	\|	frs	10/10/06

100.	Not Atypical	21:52	\|	Munchen D. Bagels	10/10/06

101.	To #76 `Israel needs to stop reporting...`	22:08	\|	Colin Wright	10/10/06

102.	hope for a new generation	22:11	\|	Dr. Mengele	10/10/06

103.	I`m surprised	22:19	\|	H to the Ovah	10/10/06

104.	despicable acts	22:26	\|	Cipora Julianna Kohn	10/10/06

105.	Please stop with the Mengele comments.	22:52	\|	TPS Boston	10/10/06

106.	i`ve seen so many people die	23:19	\|	honey bunch	10/10/06

107.	#104 Despicable Acts??	23:36	\|	* BEN JABO	10/10/06

108.	Munchen D. Bagels	23:55	\|	Sammy Soso	10/10/06

109.	#88-2 Marilyn	00:11	\|	* BEN JABO	11/10/06

110.	Steve # 75	00:51	\|	ChanahS	11/10/06

111.	Anither physicists # 77	00:52	\|	ChanahS	11/10/06

112.	Ethics & journalism	01:04	\|	Altalena	11/10/06

113.	Is Lack of Info is An Illegal Experimentation	01:14	\|	My Rehovot	11/10/06

114.	Medical malfeasance	01:30	\|	Michael Martin-Smith	11/10/06

115.	Chana	03:10	\|	sweis Melbourne	11/10/06

116.	TPS manages to distance the 4 israeli docs from mengele	03:38	\|	hollingsworth	11/10/06

117.	four top doctors arrested over illegal experiments	04:18	\|	Margaret Setter	11/10/06

118.	If you can don`t place your parents in Nursing homes	05:27	\|	Sol	11/10/06

119.	# 50 Ka	07:54	\|	Maureen Ann	11/10/06

120.	#119, Maureen Ann	08:49	\|	Cipora Julianna Kohn	11/10/06

121.	UTTER DEPRAVITY! ...The Compass/Moral Compass Is Broken.	09:11	\|	Proud Pal Defender	11/10/06

122.	To Steve #76	09:13	\|	Keren	11/10/06

123.	#116, hollingsworth	09:34	\|	Cipora Julianna Kohn	11/10/06

124.	# 120 re MA	09:39	\|	ChanahS	11/10/06

125.	To stupid and unimaginative Sammy Soso	09:43	\|	Moystakiaz	11/10/06

126.	# 121 Utter depravity	09:44	\|	ChanahS	11/10/06

127.	Bloody thugs	09:48	\|	British academic	11/10/06

128.	NO ACTUAL PHYSICAL EXPERIMENTATION DONE	10:21	\|	Margie in Tel Aviv	11/10/06

129.	Hold the Hangman	14:35	\|	* BEN JABO	11/10/06

130.	Rules concerning research	14:54	\|	Michael	11/10/06

131.	Enjoy the meal	23:36	\|	* BEN JABO	11/10/06

132.	How are Jewish doctors capable of such obscene acts.	07:57	\|	Ruth	12/10/06

133.	#132 - Ruth	11:55	\|	* BEN JABO	12/10/06

134.	You really are a sorry example of a human being	21:22	\|	hollingsworth	12/10/06

135.	#47 a dose of desperation	21:26	\|	hollingsworth	12/10/06

136.	Still waiting	01:06	\|	hollingsworth	13/10/06

137.	Response to 61	02:10	\|	Mike	13/10/06

138.	ONLY 4? GUESS AGAIN	07:21	\|	AMI	13/10/06

139.	Response to 61	10:24	\|	Mike	13/10/06

140.	Israel is a place with highest ethics	00:26	\|	dd	14/11/06

141.	Yaakov Sullivan	19:46	\|	truth	16/02/09

142.	Are you serious	13:53	\|	Patient	29/04/09

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