History Main / TestedOnHumans

The {{Necromancer}}, EvilSorcerer, MadScientist, or BigBad tests or demonstrates their latest weapon; not on beer cans or inoffensive paper targets like any decent [[TriggerHappy gun-nut]] would, but on live human beings!

* The outbreak of the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar, UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust, and the disregard for human rights of prisoners kept in concentration camps allowed Japanese and German military scientists to conduct experiments otherwise prohibited. The scientific value of many 'experiments' - particularly those conducted by Dr Joseph Mengele, a depraved sadist with [[NotThatKindOfDoctor an honorary doctorate in (Aryan) racial theory]] - was dubious. However, much of the work did confirm or invalidate numerous theories about the workings of the human body e.g. the circulation of blood, human metabolic rates, survival capacity in extreme conditions and when wounded, the stopping power/lethality of various weapons and the lethality and most contagious means of transmission of diseases.

* The Russian Navy is known for using pirates as impromptu [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJ0nblZjZE live target practice]] as a form of field test.

* The Russian Government is known for using pirates as a form of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJ0nblZjZE impromptu live target practice]] in order to test their weapons.

* The Russian Government is known for using pirates as a form of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XJ0nblZjZE impromptu live target practice]] as a form of performance test.

* ''Manga/{{Golgo 13}}'': In the anime episode "[[Recap/Golgo13Ep3TheMasterpieceAssaultRifle The Masterpiece Assault Rifle]]", a MadScientist develops the next generation of assault rifle. To establish its reputation he hires two mercenaries to use it against Duke with his [[WeaponOfChoice trademark M-16]]. Needless to say, this is not a good idea.

* The ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' makes extensive use of this trope. The Foundation acquires convicted criminals taken from prisons all over the world, transferring them to their secret research facilities as "[[CannonFodder D-class personnel]]", using them as disposable slave laborers and expendable test subjects. They are frequently forced by scientists to handle all kinds of potentially dangerous supernatural phenomena in lab experiments, and to assist containment of these SCP anomalies just so that Foundation employees don't have to risk their own lives. Occasionally, a D-class prisoner will become indispensable and thus forced to spend the rest of their life containing specific [=SCPs=]. The downside is, some D-class are actually nonviolent criminals or even innocent people; who may have been illegally abducted against their will, because they meet specific criteria or were [[DisposableVagrant homeless people whose disappearances would go unnoticed]].

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'' ''loves'' this trope; they transfer Death Row inmates to their facilities as D[[note]]for [[CannonFodder disposable]][[/note]]-Class test subjects, who take the brunt of the casualties from constantly handling supernatural phenomena. Since standard procedure is to continue their death sentences at the end of each month, scientists constantly use them to test properties of supernatural objects, recording their typical death throes. Occasionally, a D-class inmate will become indispensable and will spend the rest of their life containing specific supernatural objects. The downside is, some D-Class are actually innocent, or are illegally abducted against their will because they meet specific criteria or are vagrants with no real ties to the world.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, World War II, and the disregard for human rights of prisoners kept in concentration camps allowed Japanese and German scientists to conduct experiments otherwise prohibited. The scientific value of many 'experiments' - particularly those conducted by Dr Joseph Mengele, a depraved sadist with [[NotThatKindOfDoctor an honorary doctorate in (Aryan) racial theory]] - was dubious. However, much of the work did confirm or invalidate numerous theories about the workings of the human body e.g. the circulation of blood, human metabolic rates, survival capacity in extreme conditions and when wounded, the stopping power/lethality of various weapons and the lethality and most contagious means of transmission of diseases.

* ''Film/JonahHex''. Turnbull tests his steampunk WeaponOfMassDestruction by wiping out a small town. It also has the benefit of demonstrating his willingness to strike civilian targets, so the US military will be spread thin guarding all the potential targets.

* In ''Film/HolmesAndWatson'', Holmes feeds Watson a deadly poison to test his hypothesis on how the murder was carried out.

* In ''Series/{{Gotham}}'', Victor Fries tests his cryogenic techniques on humans, such as the pharmacist who'd refused to give him medicine for his wife without a prescription. He tells his [[IllGirl ailing wife]] it's mice that he's freezing.

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* ''Comicbook/{{Wanted}}'' has the supervillains abducting people for target practice.
* {{Subverted|Trope}} in [[http://www.wunderland.com/WTS/Rash/misc/addams.htm this]] Creator/CharlesAddams cartoon.
-->''"{{Death ray}}, fiddlesticks! Why, it doesn't even slow them up."''

%% Image Pickin' thread failed to produce an image for this page: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1437053232050761100
%% Please do not add an image to this page without discussion in Image Pickin'.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': After Worf's spine is crushed and he is left permanently paralyzed in the episode ''[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E16Ethics Ethics]]'' a neurologist named Dr. Tobey Russel offers to perform a risky procedure that would completely heal him despite the fact that the success rate in simulations was only 37%, and Starfleet refused to sanction the procedure. After realizing that Worf would rather die than live with a disability, Doctor Crusher very reluctantly allows Russel to perform the procedure. At the conclusion of the procedure Worf [[Flatline flatlines]], and only his [[BizarreAlienBiology very redundant Klingon biology]] allows him to survive and recover.

** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': After Worf's spine is crushed and he is left permanently paralyzed in the episode ''Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS5E16Ethics'' a neurologist named Dr. Tobey Russel offers to perform a risky procedure that would completely heal him despite the fact that the success rate in simulations was only 37%, and Starfleet refused to sanction the procedure. After realizing that Worf would rather die than live with a disability, Doctor Crusher very reluctantly allows Russel to perform the procedure. At the conclusion of the procedure Worf [[Flatline flatlines]], and only his [[BizarreAlienBiology very redundant Klingon biology]] allows him to survive and recover.

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise''. Our introduction to the evil MirrorUniverse characters has them watching a demonstration of the newly-invented Agony Booth on a Tellarite crewman. When asked what the crewman did wrong, Mirror!Reed admits he doesn't really know. "Late for his duty shift I expect. [[FantasticRacism Aren't all Tellarites guilty of something]]?"

* This is TheReveal in ''Terminal'' by Colin Forbes. [[spoiler:A Swiss clinic is testing a DeadlyGas to be used against a Soviet invasion. They force terminally-ill patients at the clinic to wear a Soviet gas mask and run downhill while they shoot mortar bombs filled with nerve gas at them. When the hero is captured and used in a similar matter, he runs ''uphill'' towards the mortar, so they can't take the risk of firing for fear of their own gas]].

* A ''Series/{{Highlander}}: The Series'' episode did this with swords. An Immortal walked into an antiques shop that sold assorted bladed weaponry. He asked the proprietor to show him an authentic sword that could stand up to the stresses of combat. The Immortal tested and took a Toledo sword by stabbing the proprietor with it.

* ''Series/TheExpanse''. This is TheReveal of Season One. [[spoiler:Eros Station, a WretchedHive of crime and unemployment on an asteroid far from Earth, is being prepared as a testing ground for the protomolecule, as the population is expendable and the conspirators figure no-one on faraway Earth will care.]]

->''This product was not [[AnimalTesting tested on animals]]. Write us and let us know what happens!''

** The Nazis carried out scientific explosive decompression experiments in the death camps, with a view to working out survival techniques for submariners at great depths, or for aircraft crews in planes that were going ever higher and higher and subjected to diminishing air pressure. Unlucky and dispensable test subjects were placed in atmospheric chambers and subjected either to massively increased atmospheric pressure, or to the sort of atmospheric pressure to be found in deep space. Quite often they were used to test prototype high-altitude flightsuits and survival systems, and most of the conclusions drawn above were in fact scientifically proven by a regime that viewed some people as expendable lab-rats. While nobody wants to admit it, this Nazi research was in fact vital to post-war America and Britain, who reaped the benefits of Nazi science for their own military use whilst [[BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork keeping their hands clean and staying morally spotless]]. Also, there's at least one [[https://www.bbc.com/news/health-49294861 Nazi surgery book]] that's become very handy for surgeons to use, as it contains the best anatomical drawings in the world.. Better not ask in which circumstances it was made.

The {{Necromancer}}, EvilSorcerer, MadScientist, or BigBad tests or demonstrates his latest weapon; not on beer cans or inoffensive paper targets like any decent [[TriggerHappy gun-nut]] would, but on live human beings!

Definitely a subtrope of KickTheDog. See also UnwittingTestSubject, InnocentBystander and DisposableVagrant. ProfessorGuineaPig is when the thing being tested isn't a weapon, and the MadScientist uses it on themself. GuineaPigFamily is when the Mad Scientist uses his family. Note that this trope does not necessarily apply to humans only, any living thing can qualify.

Definitely a subtrope of KickTheDog. See also UnwittingTestSubject, InnocentBystander and DisposableVagrant. ProfessorGuineaPig is when the thing being tested isn't a weapon, and the MadScientist uses it on his or herself. GuineaPigFamily is when the Mad Scientist uses his family. Note that this trope does not necessarily apply to humans only, any living thing can qualify.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals'': In the episode "Killer With A Long Arm", the ColdSniper guns down someone on a golf course to check his weapon was properly zeroed for the assassination he's been hired to carry out. If there was a reason for him to use a live target other than [[ForTheEvulz just to be a dick]], it was not adequately explained, especially since he'd used a scarecrow for an earlier test.

* ''Film/{{Spawn}}'': Wynn, on Clown's orders, blows up a North Korean chemical plant to see how its experimental toxins will affect the nearby inhabitants. Several diseases that had been wiped out suddenly re-emerge in the world population.