Welcome to
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GPZ ANTHOLOGY NOW AVAILABLE! |
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
Guinea Pig Zero is an occupational jobzine for people who are used as medical or pharmaceutical research subjects. Its various sections are devoted to bioethics, historical facts, current news and research, evaluations of particular research facilities by volunteers, true stories of guinea pig adventure, reviews, poetry and fiction relating to the disposability of plebeian life. The journal will be useful to human guinea pigs while being informative to a general readership. Ethical questions related to human research are the property of human research subjects. The zine's title is loosely derived from the term "patient zero," which named an early AIDS victim whose behavior became a wild card in the efforts by doctors to control the epidemic. More benevolently, this journal keeps in mind that we volunteers can and should maintain an awareness and a will, because if we do not, we will fall victim to the evil uses devised for us by scientists who forget that we and they are of the same species. Sinclair
Lewis summed it up well, in the voice of a fictional character, in 1925: |
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Guinea
Pig Zero: An Anthology of the Journal for Human Research
Subjects is now available. You can order your own copy of this 280 page book, featuring "the best of Guinea Pig Zero, the 'zine. Be the first on your block to own GPZ, the book! "This
book provides an informative and fascinating exposure
of an aspect of human research that has rarely been looked
into: the experiences, thoughts, goals and motives of
some of the human beings who serve as 'human guinea pigs'
for the human research establishment. " "GPZ
is a great documentation of the present state of affairs,
not only giving insight into a little known work world
but also making the past come alive with well researched
historical information."
Read
Siduri's review of the Guinea Pig Zero Anthology Hot Off the Press! Carl Elliott also wrote an article for the January 7, 2008 issue of The New Yorker called "Guinea-Pigging." Elliott interviews GPZ editor Bob Helms and other professional guinea-pigs, and quotes from the journal. Read this insightful piece on the ethical quandries of the human guinea pig in medical research! Featured Articles: Teenager Jesse Gelsinger died in September, 1999 in a gene therapy experiment at the University of Pennsylvania. His father describes what happened, and why we all should be disturbed. Read all about it. Guinea Pig Zero editor Bob Helms on The Medical Manslaughter of Jesse Gelsinger.A Guinea Pig Zero web exclusive: Ever wonder what it's like to do a really looooong drug study? Subject #1J gives the 411 on the food, the boredom, the cash in 22 Nights and 23 Days! A Guinea Pig Zero web exclusive: What really happens when you answer an ad for volunteer testing at a psych lab? Read Mikita Brottman's humorous and insightful "I Was a Brain Slave" for the inside scoop! Is it practical for human guinea pigs to unionize their labor? There's much that stands in the way of this happening, but collective action is still possible! Read two views of a drug study in Philadelphia where this happened -- Robert Helms on "Human Guinea Pigs 'Band Together' and Win a Pay Hike" and Dave Onion on "Human Guinea Pigs Organize and Win." What makes an experiment an experiment? Read editor Bob Helms' interesting take on the bombing of Guernica, the Allied raid on the French town of Dieppe, and the tragic death of 19-year old University of Rochester student Nicole Wan. A Guinea Pig Zero web exclusive: Sabina Tigges on the first successful (?) hand transplant recepient -- read "Clint Hallam: Guinea Pig Takes the Reins" here. Looking for Robert Helms' essay on "Anarchists in
Medicine and Pharmacy"? It's moved to the
From the Horse's Mouth:
How NOT to find a drug study to participate in -- advice from an expert. Don't be fooled -- click here! Guinea Pig Zero has gotten lots of mail. A while back editor Bob Helms got a letter from a young man in prison who's thinking about a career as a human guinea pig. We thought his reply might be useful for others. Read it here. Interested in the researcher's point of view? Read Hobbin A. Smith's interview with a lab research coordinator here.
The Annals of History: Alexis St. Martin (1794-1880): The Intrepid Guinea Pig of the Great Lakes Read it here. What was the connection between one of our beloved founding fathers and medical experimentation? Read about "The Skeletons in Ben Franklin's Closet" here
Literature: Read Bildad the poetic tale of a dauntful cavy by Esther Greenleaf Mürer. From Guinea Pig Zero #3.
A Thin Man's Tale Guinea pig fiction by Robert P. Helms. From Guinea Pig Zero #3.
Strong Poison: An old ballad about an unwilling guinea pig. Read a review of an interesting and disturbing play about Dr. Ignatz Semmelweis, the father of modern antiseptic theory here.
Interviews: The Secret Lives of Guinea Pigs by Barbara Solow, from Indy, an independent news weekly from North Carolina's research triangle area. Feb. 9, 2000. "Justice for the Professional Guinea Pig" by Trudo Lemmens and Carl Elliott, from The American Journal of Bioethics 2001; 1(2): 51-3 (downloadable .pdf file) "Profession: Cobaye" (Profession: Guinea Pig) a lecture in French by Bob Helms, delivered October 20, 2002 at Bieuzy-les-Eaux, in central Brittany, France
Links: Don't go looking into conspiracy theories about abused and murdered human lab rats. Start by having a look at what's been hashed out in court by one law firm. Only the tip of the iceberg, but it'll make your hair stand up nicely. Brain slut, know your politics! Here's what happened to a doctor who no one tells what to think. "I happen to believe that Prozac and other SSRIs can lead to suicide." The David Healy Affair: the reaction against his revealing lecture about psychopharmacology. And guess who didn't appreciate being revealed! The
website most strongly recommended by GPZ... |
Questions?
editor@guineapigzero.com
Email: webmaster@guineapigzero.com
Website re-design
by Tony
DeAnnuntis
Last
updated: 15 Apr 2008
University of Minnesota philosopher and bio-ethicist Carl Elliott wrote a fine literary reminiscence called