Unauthorised 1950s tests performed on Yemenite children

The newspaper Israel Hayom reveals previously unseen testimony and photos showing that in early years of the state, not only were Yemenite refugee children who died autopsied without consent, doctors also performed unauthorized tests on live children. The findings need to be seen in the context of an obsession with medical research in the 1950s, lax regulations, and that many children had arrived from Yemen in a poor state of health. (With thanks: Sylvia)

The Knesset Special Committee on the Disappearance of Children from Yemen, the East and the Balkans met Wednesday morning, after Israel Hayom published an exclusive report exposing doctors' testimonies that unauthorized medical tests were performed on children who went missing in the early years of the state and whose fates were unknown to their families. The documents also revealed that children who died were autopsied without the consent of their parents.

 Previously unseen photos revealed by Israel Hayom

Committee members were presented with the protocols of previous government committees of inquiry into the missing children, as well as proof that some of the children died after being subjected to experimental medical treatments. 

Committee Chairwoman MK Nurit Koren (Likud) said at Wednesday's meeting: "In the very place they should have been protected, the children disappeared. Some of the children disappeared and their parents never received a death certificate; they were informed only that their children had died. Although they asked to see the bodies, they got nothing and could not hold funerals. It is increasingly apparent that the bodies of the children were used for research." 

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Times of Israel article  

BBC website