Clarence Lushbaugh

Clarence Chancelum Lushbaugh Jr. (March 15, 1916 – October 13, 2000) was an American physician and pathologist. He was considered an expert in radiological accidents and injuries, as well as a pioneer in radiation safety research, and he is known for his controversial research involving human subjects.

Lushbaugh started his career in 1939 as a professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Chicago, while he was working towards his Ph.D. His early medical research was directed by the onset of World War II, and resulted in the discovery of the chemotherapeutic potential of compounds being tested as chemical weapons. After completing his medical degree from the school in 1948, he joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a pathologist, and began to develop expertise applying the science to victims of radiological accidents.

What became known as the Los Alamos Human Tissue Analysis Program began in 1958 after Lushbaugh performed an autopsy on the body of Cecil Kelley, who died of radiation-induced heart failure following a criticality accident at Los Alamos. Lushbaugh identified an opportunity to analyze Kelley's remains to confirm or improve Los Alamos safety procedures concerning radiation exposure. To this end, Lushbaugh extracted some of the irradiated organs and tissues from Kelley for analysis, eventuating the development of safer radiation exposure limits. Lushbaugh had taken these organs and tissues from Kelley without permission from Kelley's nearest of kin. The propriety of the removal of Kelley's organs was eventually called into question, and his daughter filed a successful lawsuit against Lushbaugh and Los Alamos in 1996.

Lushbaugh's career continued at the Medical and Health Sciences Division of Oak Ridge Associated Universities, where he was brought on to lead several scientific endeavors, most notably the Total Body Irradiation Program, an experimental program designed to determine the limits at which exposure to radiation would begin to cause radiation sickness. Though the goals of the program were to improve radiation safety protocols, they became controversial due to the fact that the test subjects did not know they were being subjected to the radiation, which was administered in specialized chambers disguised as waiting rooms. Lushbaugh became Chairman of the Division and helped found the Radiation Emergency Assistance Center/Training Site (REAC/TS), an organization that serves as a major emergency response consultant for the Department of Energy. Provided by Wikipedia