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Articles in the April 1999 issue of the Archives of Dermatology discussed the ethics of dermatologic experiments performed at Holmesburg Prison, Philadelphia, Pa, 2 to 4 decades ago.^1-3 These articles were the response to a book by Allen M. Hornblum⁴ who also wrote an article for the "Issues in Dermatology" section.¹ My purpose in writing this response to those articles is not to justify or judge whether those studies were ethical or unethical, but to decry the outrageous analogies and inflammatory statements made in the 3 ARCHIVES articles.

The first red flag indicating loss of common sense is to describe patch testing and skin biopsies as horrendous experiments. This interpretation could simply be due to lack of experience of the lay author, and its inappropriateness is pointed out by Michael Bigby's⁴ balanced review of Hornblum's book, Acres of Skin: Human Experimentation at Holmesburg Prison. However, this severe interpretation of . . . [Full Text of this Article]