University of Melbourne takes the occasion to express its deep regret for the part played by researchers using children in orphanages as "subjects"

"The University of Melbourne strongly supports the Prime Minister’s apology to the "Forgotten Australians", and associated government measures to redress wrongs suffered by many people who were in institutional care early in their lives.

This recognition of injustice is long overdue.

It is also appropriate the University - a community that aspires to serve the public good in every field of knowledge including medical research - takes 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.’

As the Senate inquiry into the Forgotten Australians recorded in 2004, in the years after this War children were repeatedly struck down by outbreaks of polio, influenza, whooping cough and other diseases. Many died or were left disabled. In response, medical research institutions including the University of Melbourne worked urgently to develop vaccines.

The report states: "These vaccines needed trialling and children in orphanages were used as the ‘subjects’ for a range of speculated reasons, including that they were often the most susceptible to disease as an epidemic could sweep through an orphanage."

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.
[...]

Glyn Davis
Vice-Chancellor

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