Danish Orphans Used in Secret Basement Experiments Backed by CIA, Documentary Claims

Sputnik: During experiments meant to reveal psychopathic traits and map out the link between schizophrenia and heredity, children had electrodes put on their body and had to listen to loud, shrill noises. According to experts, this violates the Nuremberg Code of 1947 that introduced ethical restrictions for experiments on humans.

Oh, hey. A CIA sponsored US-Danish research project carried out neurological experiments on orphaned and institutionalised boys in Denmark in the 1960s and 70s. Because the Danish social registry provided access to data throughout the boys' lives. SHAME! https://t.co/jEzEuIA3P7

— Christina Petterson (@chrispet72) December 27, 2021

Several hundred Danish orphans have been unknowingly used in experiments backed by the CIA, Danish Radio has reported in a new documentary called “The Search for Myself”.

Overall, the studies, beginning in the early 1960s and meant to investigate a link between heredity and environment in the development of schizophrenia, involved 311 Danish children. The examinations took place in a basement at the Municipal Hospital in Copenhagen.

Many were adopted or lived in nearby orphanages,
Filmmaker Per Wennick, who participated in these experiments as a child, recalls being placed in a chair, getting electrodes put on his arms, legs, and chest around the heart and having to listen to loud, shrill noises. The test was meant to reveal whether a child had psychopathic traits.

“It was very uncomfortable”, Wennick told Danish Radio. “And it’s not just my story, it’s the story of many children”. By his own admission, he was promised “something funny” before being taken to hospital. “I think this is a violation of my rights as a citizen in this society. I find it so strange that some people should know more about me than I myself have been aware of”.