Chester M. Southam

“In quixotically trying to conquer death doctors all too frequently do no good for their patients’ “ease” but at the same time they do harm instead by prolonguing and even magnifying patients’ dis-ease.”

Chester M. Southam, MD, was an American virologist who worked on curing cancer. “Studies had shown that a pathogen called the Russian spring-summer encephalitis virus could eradicate tumors in mice. Because that virus was considered too dangerous for people, Southam searched for something milder, settling on the newly discovered West Nile virus.” He had already spent some time in Africa injecting an assortment of viruses including mumps, dengue, West Nile, and Semliki Forest virus in severely ill cancer patients. The West Nile Virus usually

caused fever, weakness, confusion and even seizures, but was considered better than the alternative, cancer, and the patients where aware of the injections. The New York Times reported on April 15, 1952, “Deep Cancers Temporarily Shrunk by Rare Nerve Virus From Africa.”
Southam began Research with HeLa in 1954, by injecting patients with leukemia with HeLa. None of the subjects knew what they were being tested with exactly. They were simply told HeLa was human cells individually grown. Southam and fellow colleagues stated that they did not want to scare the patients with the research they were doing. Some of them grew tumors, 4 patients’ tumors grew back after being removed, and one patient died.
In 1956, Southam placed HeLa cells in about 50 prisoners knowing the possible consequences. He went on with gynecology patients at Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research although he was not their doctor. The gynecology patients were being administered HeLa without informed consent.
It wasn't until 1963 that word got out about Dr. Southam’s work with HeLa. Selwyn Raab, was an editor of a news company that was sent to check out a tip. “‘The idea that they would inject sick people with cancer cells was incredible to me,’ recalls Raab, now retired. ‘It struck me as abhorrent. Anyone of even limited intelligence knew you couldn’t get informed consent from senile people.’” Although supported by some, he was ultimately found guilty of “unprofessionalism and deceit.” Later Southam was elected president of the American Association for Cancer Research in the late 1960s.
The work of Chester M.

Southam, MD violated both the letter and spirit of such basic ethical principles as respect for persons, truth-telling, and informed consent. He ignored informed consent for the sake of the patients’ as he would say, but we can never be deductively positive. He violated the virtue of truth-telling through withholding the information of HeLa from many of his patients. Ultimately being found guilty of “unprofessionalism and deceit” is more evidence of his deplorable behavior as a professional. Evidence of his lack of respect for persons comes from Kantian deontological ethics, and his categorical imperative. Never treat a human person as means to an end, only as ends in

themselves.
The mission of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is “to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge to enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce illness and disability.” Despite how this may or may not line up with Dr. Southam’s endeavors, one of the goals of the NIH is “to exemplify and promote the highest level of scientific integrity, public accountability, and social responsibility in the conduct of science.” This is where Dr. Southam strayed from the path of ethical behavior. His integrity, of which encompasses honesty, was broken when he deceived his patients. Public accountability, which holds a similar definition with social responsibility, failed as a result of his deceit to the public on exactly the nature of his work.
Several aspects of the Nuremberg Code were broken with Dr.

Southam’s practice, beginning with the Code’s number 1 rule, “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.” Other rules under the Nuremberg Code were broken as well, however all of these egregious behaviors of researchers, more so than just Southam, have influenced the tight research protocols in place today. As Dr. Hardy shared information on research protocols, she consistently referred back to a strict system of regulations that, at times, may seem a little extreme. The alternative, a system permitting researchers like Southam, would be a far harder bullet to bite. In the end, I am glad these systems are in place to try to ensure a trust between patients and

Doctors.
Chester M. Southam, MD, was an American virologist who worked on curing cancer. His motives were good. He saw a future world without cancer and disease, and he tried to achieve this goal. But in order to achieve, he lost his respect for humans as the ends in themselves, and humans as intrinsically good. His actions were immoral, illegal, and deplorable. A positive view of what came out of this is a better understanding on medical ethics, and some important research on cancer. But in situations like these it is important to remember the words of Jesus, “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?”