Medical experiments on 'orphans' in institutions are discussed in the 'Forgotten Australians' report (2004) and 'Protecting Vulnerable Children' (2005). Australian research institutes (including the Water and Eliza Hall Institute and CSL) trialled new vaccines on babies and children in Victorian Homes, particularly during the period after World War Two.
Trials of a herpes simplex vaccine were carried out on babies at the St Joseph's Foundling Hospital in Broadmeadows in the 1940s and the results were published in the Medical Journal of Australia and the Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science.
The Medical Journal of Australia also reported on experiments with influenza vaccines conducted by the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in the 1950s, on children under the age of 3 at Broadmeadows.
CSL tested quadruple antigen vaccines on babies and young children between 1959 and 1961 at five Victorian institutions: St Joseph's Foundling Hospital, Broadmeadows, the Foundling Hospital and Infants' Home [Berry Street], East Melbourne, Bethany Babies' Home, Geelong, Methodist Babies' Home, South Yarra and Turana in Royal Park.
In 1997, the Age published reports about medical experiments and research trials conducted on children in Victorian institutions in the 1950s and 1960s. The media attention led the Chairman of the National Health and Medical Research Council to comment that everyone involved in clinical research needed to 'heed the lessons of the past'.
In 2009, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne strongly supported the Federal Government's apology to child migrants and Forgotten Australians and in a statement, expressed
'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'.'
We do not currently have any resources linked to this entry, but resources may exist. If you know of any related resources, please contact us.
The Find & Connect Support Service can help people who lived in orphanages and children's institutions look for their records.
We do not currently have any photographs linked to this entry. If you know of any additional photographs, please contact us.
The Find & Connect Support Service can help people who lived in orphanages and children's institutions look for their records.
Last updated:
12 July 2022
Cite this: http://www.findandconnect.gov.au/guide/vic/E000503
First published by the Find & Connect Web Resource Project for the Commonwealth of Australia, 2011
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License