Topic Choice:

When I first heard that the 2011 theme was “Debate & Diplomacy: Successes, Failures,

And Consequences”, major events in American history came to mind. But as I did preliminary

research on these topics, I realized that these “big” topics neither challenged nor interested me. I

was interesting in a topic that I did not know much about and most importantly, inspired me to

learn more about it. While researching topics online, I suddenly remembered reading about the

hepatitis studies at Willowbrook State School last year. After reading about the deplorable

conditions that the children at Willowbrook State School lived in, I was overcome by two major

emotions: anger at the studies’ doctors for taking advantage of these abused children and

disbelief that this had all happened barely fifty years ago. I felt that it was my personal duty to

learn and share the story of these children on my 2011 NHD website.

Research Process:

I found some of my primary sources in online medical databases because the primary

investigator of the Willowbrook hepatitis studies, Dr. Saul Krugman, published progress reports

in prominent medical journals. I also found newspaper articles from the 1950’s-1970’s and

interviews with former Willowbrook residents online, which provided me with descriptions of

the conditions at Willowbrook State School. And finally, documents concerning ethical research

that existed before, while, and after the hepatitis studies were conducted were another source of

primary resources.

Project Development:

I selected the website category because I have never designed a website before and I

wanted to challenge myself. My topic selection also influenced this decision because I found
some actual footage of the Willowbrook State School online and I wanted to include them in my

project. I read some basic HTML/CSS tutorials online, and after many tries, finally succeeded in

altering one of the Weebly themes by changing the colors and margins. For the content of the

website, I mainly used the Custom HTML feature and tables to place my words next the pictures.

Relationship to NHD Theme:

The hepatitis studies at Willowbrook State School initially caused a lot of public

controversy in New York during the mid 1960’s because after 1964, the school stopped

admitting new children. The only openings were in the hepatitis study unit and some parents felt

coerced into giving consent for their child to participate in the studies because they wanted their

child admitted into the school. From a clinical research point of view, however, this admittance

policy was viewed as unethical by some cotemporaries and reasonable by others. The intentional

infection of children with hepatitis was another highly debatable topic: were the children better

off being infected with a relatively mild case of hepatitis in a monitored environment or

contracting a potentially more severe case of hepatitis in a non-study unit? The questionable

ethics of the Willowbrook hepatitis studies caused a debate in the field of clinical research that

highlighted a need for more rules to protect human subjects.