TED SERIOS as a SUBJECT for HUMAN EXPERIMENTATION

Public and professional concern about human experimentation is clear-cut. The British Medical Research Council has summarized this concern:

The progress of medical knowledge has depended, and will depend, in no small measure upon the confidence which the public has in those who carry out investigations on human subjects . . . Only in so far as it is known that such investigations are submitted to the highest ethical scrutiny and self-disipline will this confidence be maintained.

In addition, the Code of Ethics of the World Medical Association, known as the Declaration of Helsinki, includes five basic principles about human experimentation which enlarge on the above thoughts.

In light of these principals, Dr. Eisenbud and some of his colleagues have not adequately justified their experiments with Serios, if incidents described in The World of Ted Seriosare to be believed.

Specifically, the researchers have apparently catered to the weakness Serios has toward excessive drinking. A disturbing conditioning situation is revealed in the book. Although in two experiments Serios has been sober, his so-called psychic power seems to manifest itself most readily when he is intoxicated.

Over a period of at least two years, he has been supplied alcoholic beverages so that he could become drunk and produce thought pictures before an audience. If he fails to produce or becomes uncontrollable the liquor is withdrawn. If he then settles down and is successful with the camera he is permitted to begin drinking again.

The complexity of this conditioning would be difficult to formulate because this kind of experimentation is ordinarily done with rats or lower primates who obviously have less complicated nervous systems and lack human personality profiles.

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