Vipeholm Experiments

From 1945 to 1955, Swedish researchers subjected uninformed patients of Vipeholm Mental Hospital to a series of tests to determine how teeth decay worked. The tests began as government-approved vitamin research but quickly deteriorated into experimentation with a diet of candy and chocolate, sponsored in large part by the local confectionery industry. Many of the patients had their teeth irreparably ruined, and it began a large conversation on the ethics of informed consent because these experiments were performed on people who were “uneducable” who had no say in what went on.