This book is very interesting and vividly told. I wish that Moreno would write more books as this one was such a good one.

This very readable book faces the uncomfortable reality of using humans for medical experiments. Government secrecy is corrosive to democracy, and is a true threat to our way of life. The use of human guinea pigs shows something rotten at the heart of society's political rulers.

Chapter 5 tells about radiation experiments. There was a need to study the health risks from inhalation or ingestion to determine the toxic levels. Releasing radioactive products into the air was part of deliberate policy that occurred hundreds of times (pp.153-4). Chapter 6 tells how the Nuremberg Code was adopted for testing ABC weapons (p.166). This rule prevailed in the civilian hierarchy but lacked traction in the military medical culture (p.184); this reflected the political struggles (p.187). Chapter 7 tells of the experiments with hallucinogens as a military secret weapon during WW II (pp.190-1), and afterwards. The Blauer Case tells how state hospitals' experiments killed patients (pp.194-8)! Scanty record keeping on atomic bomb explosions was continued with Agent Orange in Vietnam (p.206). The known dangers from uranium mines were disregarded by the AEC (p.221). Uranium miners fate was to die in their forties for reasons of national security (p.226). After Nuremberg, only America among Western countries experimented on prisoners (p.230).

Chapter 8 tells of the attacks on the Nuremberg Code rules. Pages 252-3 tell why it is legal to experiment on members of the Armed Forces: the Supreme Court said so! Nerve gas experiments were suspended in 1969 (p.263). President Nixon asked for the ratification of the 1925 Geneva Accord to prohibit the first use of biological and chemical weapons. The1977 Senate hearings on the biological testing program resulted in new ethics of research for government agencies (p.265). Chapter 9 tells of the 1991 Gulf War aftermath: many veterans reported illnesses. One explanation was the drug alleged to protect our soldiers caused this problem. PB was never tested or approved, so its use was reckless and a poor experiment (p.269). Pyridostigmine bromide was never approved against chemical weapons (p.270). The FDA created an exceptional "Rule 23(d)". Did PB react with organophosphates to create harm (p.272)? The lack of records prevents any investigation. The last section on '91 Bravo' reads like a very optimistic and cheerful ending to this story.

Calling chemical warfare "weapons of mass destruction" is misleading since they are more limited than atomic or biological weapons. Biological weapons can turn against their users. Only atomic weapons have enormous destructive capacity (p.xv). The Advisory Committee on Human Radiation documented secret experiments on humans from WW II to the present day. Biological warfare goes back to ancient times: placing decaying bodies into a water supply or launching them into a besieged fort. There is much more known about biological and chemical weapons today than before 1992. Government secrecy is corrosive to democracy, and is a true threat to our way of life. The use of human guinea pigs shows something rotten at the heart of society's political rulers. This very readable book faces the uncomfortable reality of using humans for medical experiments.

Bacteria and chemicals are hard to control and deliver effectively but relatively cheap to produce and transport. Testing on humans has a long international history, as is hiding these facts (p.4). The Nazi doctors trial at Nuremberg set a standard for military-medical human experiments. Hundreds of other doctors were never tried. A "crime against humanity" was defined as the reckless pursuit of scientific knowledge, or sheer sadism. Experiments on humans predated the Nazis; in 1931 the powerful chemical manufacturers were caught using patients in hospitals (p.64). Then there was America's own wartime research (pp. 65-6). But America was not riddled with a hate-mongering pathology that permitted the systematic injury of certain groups of humans (p.79).

Chapter 4 tells of Nazi scientists brought to America because of their expertise. They now used American soldiers rather than concentration camp victims (p.89)! Similar experiments were done by Japanese Unit 731 (pp.103-7). Their history was kept secret to protect Army biological weapon testing at Fort Detrick, whose budget was second to the Manhattan project (p.109). The US military wanted this information on crop destruction and human experiments. A Soviet war crimes trial documented these facts (p.111-4). Germ warfare charges in Korea and China are discussed on pages 115-6.

We are fortunate Jonathan Moreno did dare and took the time to write "Undue Risk." Not only does he inform, he has the courage to take a stand. A person of the caliber of David Kevles of California Institute of Technology says in his New York Times Book Review ". . . the historical record that he presents in ''Undue Risk'' strongly supports his contention that the rights of human subjects deserve to be held paramount over any needs of national security." Anyone familiar with the work of the President's Committee on Human Radiation Experiments knows it was anything but a whitewash. While flawed it is the most thorough review of documents surrounding this sad, sad chapter of our nations recent history. The experiments were outrageous attacks against human rights. I am co-founder of the Human Experiments Litigation Project which successfully filed seven suits against the experimenters. I commend Moreno for his in depth research, excellent grasp of the entire range of experiments, his concern for the sanctity of human life and ability to tell this story with a clear demarcation between fact and opinion. The more people who read this book, the more our chance as a society of remembering just a bit longer the lessons of science gone amuck.