Forgotten Australians 'used in research'

18 Nov 2009, 7:26 am   -   Source: AAP/SBS
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Medical researchers used child migrants and other youngsters in care for experiments and vaccine trials (Getty)

Medical researchers used child migrants and other youngsters in care for experiments and vaccine trials (Getty)

The University of Melbourne has apologised to the so-called 'Forgotten Australians' its researchers used in medical experiments and trials.

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The University of Melbourne has apologised to the so-called 'Forgotten Australians' its researchers used in medical experiments and trials.

In an email to staff and students on Tuesday, vice-chancellor Glyn Davis admitted the university used orphans as "subjects" in vaccination trials for common childhood diseases, The Age newspaper said.

A 2004 Senate inquiry identified Melbourne organisations such as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research as using children from institutions.

But The University of Melbourne was not among them, until now, the newspaper said.

Medical experiments

The Senate inquiry found children and babies in institutions were used for medical experiments and research in Victoria until as recently as the 1970s, in the race to beat debilitating diseases such as whooping cough and polio, following World War II.

Professor Davis said in the email he supported the bipartisan apology for the Forgotten Australians delivered in the federal parliament this week.

"It is also appropriate the university take this occasion to express its deep regret for the part played by researchers linked to its community in vaccination research trials conducted after World War II using children in orphanages as 'subjects'," he wrote.

"The University of Melbourne Council and the university community join with other Australians in saying a heartfelt 'sorry' to those children whose personal rights were infringed by these experiments and to all the Forgotten Australians for the suffering their institutionalisation has caused."

The apology comes with an offer of counselling for all those affected by the practice.

 

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Your Comments

Ms

Gabrielle Short - from Brisbane, 5 months ago

What is meant by the statement the so-called 'Forgotten Australians'?. Is this descriptive to hard to handle does it hit a raw nerve does it conjure up guilt feelings does it remind the so-called Pillars of our society such as Religious and Government of the awful crimes they committed upon children and the way many of these children were used as free labour, guinea pigs in all sorts of medical experiaments, raped & beaten to a pulp on a daily basis. Forgotten abou because no one came to our aid

This is the worst kind of Journalism

gina Swannell - from BAnora Point, 5 months ago

This article...just the opening line of "so called"..Forgotten Australians is beyond offensive. Abuse of "forgotten Australians" it's not an allegation-It is a FACT that children were subjected to the most appalling treatment at the hands of the State....sexual physical emotional and if that's not repulsive enough! Many Forgotten Australians were then treated worse than LAB RATS... I would also like to point out that MANY, Many "Forgotten Australians" intend to make that term Paradoxical

"So Called "

Peter Pinson - from Pascoe Vale South, 5 months ago

To ... The So Called ' Journalist ' who wrote this article. How Dare You .... refer to The Forgotten Australians as So Called. They are not to be disrespected by insensitive bananas like you. Being experimented ON is only one of the horrible things that happened to Now you should appologise for your wording.!!! SBS should know better.

child migrants

gavin kean - from tamworth, 3 years ago

to be sent away is one thing but to be sent to a country in which it's own citizens have no rights is something else altogether.i laugh at the suggestion that a government apology could possibly erase the pain of my torturess enslavement and suggest a more personable approach,perhaps one which outlines a way forward to a position that mirrors my birthright.gavin kean

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