Cold war at Porton Down: informed consent in Britain's biological and chemical warfare experiments.

By the end of the Second World War the advancing allied forces discovered a new nerve gas in Germany. It was called Tabun. Codenamed GA, it was found to be extremely toxic. British experts were immediately dispatched to examine the agent. On arrival, they discovered that German scientists had also developed even more toxic nerve agents, including Sarin, known as GB.1 The first organized testing of Sarin on humans began in October 1951 at Porton Down in Wiltshire, Britain’s biochemical warfare establishment since the First World War. In February 1953, volunteer number 562 experienced the first recorded serious adverse reaction. Testing continued. Two months later, on April 27, six subjects were given 300 milligrams of Sarin. One of the volunteers, a man named Kelly, suffered serious ill effects, fell into a coma, but then recovered. Although asked by their superiors to reduce the amount tested to the “lowest range of dosage” —which would have been somewhere in the region of 10–15 milligrams —Porton’s scientists continued their tests with a “lower” dosage, reducing it from 300 to 200 milligrams.2 On May 6, 1953, tests were carried out on a further six subjects. Number 745 was Leading Aircraftsman Ronald Maddison. All six men went into the chamber at around 10 a.m. All were wearing respirators. Each had two pieces of uniform, serge and flannel tied loosely over the forearm. Two hundred milligrams of pure Sarin were applied onto the layers of cloth, on the inside of the left forearm. Maddison was the fourth of the six to be contaminated at 10:17 a.m. Each was to remain in place for 30 minutes from the time of contamination. But at 10:40 a.m., he said he felt “pretty queer.” Maddison was sweating and sent from the chamber. His respirator and the contaminated cloth were removed and he walked to a bench about 30 yards away, still sweating. After 2 minutes an ambulance was called, a minute later Maddison said he could not hear. He was given an injection of atropine sulphate intravenously,