A Danish radio documentary series, The Search for Myself, did not hold back in leveling claims against the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that it had financially aided experiments on 311 Danish children in the early 1960s. A good number of them were orphans or adopted.
One such victim was the documentary maker Per Wennick, who claims that he was subjected to tests with no knowledge of their background in the basement of the Municipal Hospital in Copenhagen. These tests were supposedly designed to investigate links between heredity and environmental factors in engendering schizophrenia.
Of particular interest in the experiment in question were the children of schizophrenic mothers. Of the 311 children in question, 207 had such mothers, while the rest, who constituted the control group, did not.
Wennick was of the latter group. As with previous experiments of such ilk, Wennick received shallow enticements without information.
He was promised something exciting at the Municipal Hospital. For the pleasure of it all, he would also get 16 kroner. He sat in a chair, had headphones placed upon him, and was subjected to statements, screams and noises designed to frighten. Electrodes were placed upon his body, his heart rate, body temperature and sweat level were measured.
The program Wennick participated in was almost certainly a violation of the Nuremberg Code of 1947, which stipulates that:
'The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.'“
Consent can only be ethically obtained where the person has the legal capacity to do so, has exercise of free power of choice, and has 'sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable them to make an understanding and enlightened decision'.
Danish Radio credited US psychologist Zarnoff A. Mednick, then a professor at the University of Michigan, with the idea behind the research project. Unable to find a suitable study group in the US, he sought out Fini Schulsinger, a Danish professor at the Municipal Hospital. Together, they established a decades-long Danish-US research collaboration on Danish soil.
According to Wennick and the National Archives, the research project was co-financed by the US health service. Furthermore, it received funding from the Human Ecology Fund, operated on behalf of the CIA.