CINCINNATI -- A federal judge has approved a $5.4 million settlement of lawsuits by families of cancer patients who were subjected to Cold War radiation experiments by University of Cincinnati researchers.
The lawsuit charged that the approximately 90 cancer patients who received radiation treatments from 1960 to 1972 in Cincinnati were not fully informed of the risks or told that the Defense Department was getting the results to learn what might happen to troops exposed to radiation.All but one of the plaintiffs has died. The defendants never conceded that the experiments contributed to the deaths of the patients, who already had advanced cases of cancer when they underwent experimentation.
Dr. Eugene Saenger, one of the chief researchers, said his main objective was to study experimental treatments for patients with inoperable cancer to see if he could stop the growth of tumors.
The university administration believes the research was appropriate and there was no wrongdoing.
The agreement approved this week gives each of the families about $50,000, plus the right to have the patient from their family listed on a plaque in a courtyard at the hospital.
Anna Foster, a Cincinnati woman whose grandmother, Parthenia Marshall, 82, died in 1982 after receiving the radiation bombardments, said Tuesday she is pleased with the settlement.
"I'm just glad it's over," Foster said.
The case puts researchers on notice that people who are experimented on must be told what is being done to them and why, said Robert Newman, a lawyer for about 50 plaintiffs.
"Government can't trick people into being part of a drug trial or a psychological experiment or radiation experiment," he said.
The Pentagon paid $651,000 -- about 60 percent of the funding -- for the results of the experiments. The government, university, researchers and city will pay the settlement.