History Main / TestedOnHumans

* The very prospect of it led to the development of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioethics bioethics]].

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

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

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''
** Raballo tests Claes' abilities by sending her to confront a couple of subway punks, telling her to only uses her pistol as a last resort. It backfires when one of them stabs her and she has to shoot them anyway. Raballo realises he screwed up; she was so focused on obeying him that she wasn't focused on protecting herself.
** After Raballo dies, Claes becomes unsuited for field work as it would be too difficult to recondition her for another handler, so she's relegated to being the test bed for each new iteration of {{cyborg}} technology. This means literally testing her body to the breaking point, whereupon they fix her up and do it all over again.

** In ''Film/ANewHope'', Grand Moff Tarkin threatens to test the Death Star's planet-destroying superweapon on Princess Leia's homeworld of Alderaan, [[SadisticChoice unless she surrenders the location of the rebel headquarters to be blown up instead]]. However, Tarkin decides to obliterate Alderaan anyway, reasoning that the location Leia gave (Dantooine) is far too remote to serve as [[MakeAnExampleOfThem an effective demonstration for the rest of the galaxy]].
*** In the [[Literature/DeathStar EU]], he first tested it on [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Despayre]].

** Perhaps the most egregious example would be the Vaults themselves. Though marketed as the ultimate bomb shelters, most Vaults were secretly the testing grounds for sadistic social experiments, to see if humans could survive prolonged space travel to another planet, which was the American government's real plan for surviving nuclear war. Some experiments make a twisted sort of sense -- an all-powerful Overseer, infrastructure requiring constant and inconvenient repairs, low-light conditions -- but what about the Vaults with grossly imbalanced gender ratios? Or the Vault without clothing dispensers? [[{{Webcomic/PennyArcade}} Or the Vault assigned one man and a box of puppets]]?
*** In fact, in government and Vault-Tec records the Vault project is often referred to as the Vault Experiment -- ''every'' Vault is part of the experimentation, whether for social or biological science, with the Vaults that seemingly escaped either having a slated experiment with fairly benign consequences or being one of the 17 Control Vaults (as in '[[NoControlGroup control group]]').
* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Mordin's former assistant uses humans as test subjects to develop a cure for the [[DepopulationBomb genophage]]. It's also what they initially think the Collectors are doing with the colonies they abduct. [[spoiler:Actually, they're being used to make a new Reaper]].
** Mordin himself acknowledges the logic behind using human test subjects (humans are more genetically diverse than most other species and so make excellent lab rats), but disagrees with it on moral grounds. "Never test using species capable of calculus. Simple rule. Never broke it."

** After Raballo dies, Claes becomes unsuited for field work as it would be too difficult to recondition her for another handler, so she's relegated to being the test bed for each new iteration of {{cyborg}} technology.

** Raballo tests Claes' abilities by sending her to confront a couple of subway punks, telling her to only uses her pistol as a last resort. It backfires when one of them stabs her and she has to shoot them anyway. Raballo realises that he screwed up; she was so focused on obeying him, she wasn't focused on protecting herself.

* In ''Manga/GunslingerGirl'', after Raballo dies, Claes becomes unsuited for field work, so she's relegated to being the test bed for each new iteration of {{cyborg}} technology.

** 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.
** Unit 731 of the IJA is perhaps the best known example of these wartime research units, having run through an unknown number (somewhere in the thousands) of people of various Chinese and occasionally European ethnicities for use in the aforementioned research. Vivisection without application of anesthetic was advocated as it produced the most accurate results, and they were a bit short on that kind of thing (medical supplies) anyway. Field tests of disease delivery methods and resultant effects had terminal effects on some 200k to 600k Chinese civilians in urban areas designated for biological research.
** 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.

** ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': General Ludendorff and Dr. Poison test their new DeadlyGas on unfortunate human guinea pigs.

* ''Dead Man's Land'' by Robert Ryan. Knowing his famous role as the partner of Franchise/SherlockHolmes, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill tries to interest Dr. Watson in "The Case of the Man Who Died Twice", about a soldier who was executed for cowardice, who somehow turned up back in England dead of exposure. On being told the place of death was near Porton Down, Watson comes up with an unpleasant theory. The soldier was told his life would be spared if he volunteered for top secret work, only to flee after discovering that he was to be a test subject for DeadlyGas weapons. While Churchill has no sympathy for a coward, [[EveryoneHasStandards he's shocked at the idea and promises to look into the matter]].

* In ''VideoGame/TheSims2'', this is implied to be what Loki and Circe Beaker are doing with Nervous Subject in Strangetown. The house they have has a lab filled with science-y looking things (actually aspiration rewards) and Nervous lives in a basement room under the lab.

* In ''Videogame/DragonAgeOrigins'' "Warden's Keep", Avernus found a way to use BloodMagic to weaponize the Darkspawn Taint and prolong his own life to delay the Calling for two ''centuries''. And all it took was using the other Wardens trapped in the Keep as test subjects. What little we see of the experiments is ghastly: cages, bloody knifes, electric torture, etc. By the time Avernus made his breakthrough, he was the only Warden left.

* The Website/SCPFoundation is extremely fond of this trope. They routinely acquire convicted criminals taken from prisons all over the world, transferring them to their secret research facilities as "[[CannonFodder D-class personnel]]"; which means they become 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 non-violent criminals or even innocent people; who may have been illegally abducted against their will, because they meet specific criteria for testing an SCP, or were [[DisposableVagrant homeless people whose disappearances would go unnoticed]].

* In ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'', Derek Powers developed a chemical weapon. When the potential buyer asked about its effect on humans, Powers told him that local human testing laws weren't so "liberal" as those of the buyer's home nation, but Powers had footage of an "accident".
* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'', a flashback shows Dr. Kreiger testing a new BulletproofVest on an ISIS intern. Unfortunately, as it turns out, said ArmorIsUseless.

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* ''Manga/SamuraiGun'': The evil Shogunate test their {{Steampunk}} [[GatlingGood gatling gun]] on a bound woman with [[{{Fanservice}} large breasts]].

* ''Manga/Golgo13'': 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 trademark M-16. Needless to say, this is not a good idea.

* In ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'', one case involves the group investigating a company in China that produces artistic mannequins made from actual human bodies. As it turns out, [[spoiler:the company is a front for the descendants of Unit 731 (mentioned in the Real Life section below), who continue to perform experiments on humans. After capturing the protagonists, it's revealed they plan to keep most of them to test a deadly virus on]].

* ''ComicBook/ALoveLikeBlood'': Vampire scientists develop new diseases in secret laboratories to ease the process of feeding, such as a hemorrhaegic fever that causes humans to bleed out within minutes.
* ''ComicBook/{{Supergod}}''. The Chinese government creates Maitreya, a DeityOfHumanOrigin, and assembles a warehouse of political prisoners under guard so he can demonstrate his power over [[SpaceMaster spacetime]] and [[{{Biomanipulation}} matter]]. Instead Maitreya opens the door to [[PetTheDog let the prisoners escape]], while simultaneously demonstrating to their captors that EvilIsNotAToy.
-->'''Reddin''': He instead fashioned the guards into a vast musical instrument of entrancingly beautiful tone, then configured all the officers and scientists into a self-supporting worm-like structure and fired them into space using the musical instrument, where they journeyed as a biological probe of brains linked in a parallel that reported information about the solar system to Maitreya via quantum entanglement -- until the structure, starting to break up, was identified as Comet Shoemaker-Levy and eventually smacked into the surface of Jupiter. [[DissonantSerenity Terrible, really]].
* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: The Golden Age Dr. Poison tested her biological weapons on humans, and tested other things on human captives as well, rather like what Imperial Japanese scientists and doctors were doing in real life at the time.

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* The ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'' story "Monkey On Your Smurf" (which is basically a RecycledInSpace rewrite of ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'''s "Scientific Method") has the Smurfs as the stand-in for humans as they were being tested on by alien monkeys.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': Syndrome pays "retired" superheroes to come to his IslandBase, supposedly to stop a [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue robot]]. [[spoiler:Actually, he's using them to test the robot's abilities, constantly upgrading it with each defeat until the superhero is killed.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]

* ''Film/SpaceTruckers''. While the DangerRoomColdOpen where a KillerRobot attacks a MegaCorp's base was just a demonstration for the boss, this particular executive is so corrupt they used real weapons and real {{Mooks}}, all of whom are gruesomely slaughtered by the robot.
* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
** In ''Film/ANewHope'', Grand Moff Tarkin threatens to test the Death Star's planet-destroying superweapon on Princess Leia's homeworld of Alderaan, [[SadisticChoice unless she surrenders the location of the rebel headquarters to be blown up instead]]. However, Tarkin decides to obliterate Alderaan anyway, reasoning that the location Leia gave (Dantooine) is far too remote to serve as [[MakeAnExampleOfThem an effective demonstration for the rest of the galaxy]].
*** In the [[Literature/DeathStar EU]], he first tested it on [[IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace Despayre]].
** In ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', Darth Vader wants to check that the [[HumanPopsicle carbon-freezing equipment]] is safe to use on Luke, so he orders it tested on Han Solo.
** ''Film/RogueOne'', which takes place shortly before the events of ''A New Hope'', the Death Star's maiden firing is targeted at the populated desert moon of Jedha. Director Krennic intended to completely destroy the moon, but Tarkin intervenes and instead commands a low-powered test to specifically eradicate a rebellious city on Jedha's surface.

* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'': Judge Doom tests The Dip on a poor, innocent {{Toon}} shoe... except he already ''knows'' it works (and so does the guy who explains it to Eddie), so it's really just a [[KickTheDog gratuitous demonstration]].
* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfRockyAndBullwinkle'': An ArmsDealer sells Fearless Leader a laser that kills Toons and [[AndIMustScream imprisons their essence on the internet]]. The said laser is demonstrated on a toon weasel while he [[PleaseIWillDoAnything begs for mercy]]. He even leaves behind toon blood! Suddenly makes the shoe scene from ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' seem tame, doesn't it?

* In ''Film/LordOfWar'', an ArmsDealer sells a dictator a cache of firearms. The dictator tests one out by shooting one of his own aides. The arms dealer is horrified, but plays his reaction off as a joke -- "Why did you do that? Now you have to buy it. I can't sell a ''used'' gun."
* ''Film/TheLastKingOfScotland'': Amin's bodyguard forces a {{Child Soldier|s}} to swallow one of the poisoned headache pills Garrigan had prepared for Amin, causing Garrigan to give himself away.
* In the [[SciFiWritersHaveNoSenseOfScale inaccurately-named]] ''[[Film/FlashGordonSerial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe]]'', Emperor Ming tests his Death Dust on some prisoners to see if it will only kill those with the will to oppose him. Those of 'lesser intelligence' survive. No wonder Ming always complains about being SurroundedByIdiots!

* Variant in ''Film/{{Wanted}}'': the Brotherhood makes Wesley train his bullet-curving abilities on a shooting range with human corpses, in order to desensitize him to death and the sight of bodies.

* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse:
** ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'': Lois Lane discovers that the US government is supplying mercenaries with experimental ammunition in order to field test it. The lab assistant who tells her this says the only surprising thing is that Lois can still be shocked about it. It's actually a government mole who supplied Lex Luthor's company, [=LexCorp=], which then supplied the mercenaries.
** ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': General Ludendorff and Dr. Poison test their new DeadlyGas on unfortunate human guinea pigs.

* ''Film/TheJackal'': The eponymous assassin hires Lamont to build a remote-controlled mounting for his [[{{BFG}} 14.5mm autocannon]]. Lamont [[TooDumbToLive makes the mistake]] of trying to blackmail him for more money, so the assassin tells him to run for his life to test the pan-and-tracking mechanism, then [[MultipleGunshotDeath uses the cannon itself]].
* Combined with LeaveNoWitnesses in the film of ''Literature/BlackSunday''. The terrorists are about to test the FlechetteStorm bomb in an AbandonedWarehouse when an old man comes on the scene. So they pretend it's a new kind of panoramic camera and ask him to pose for a shot.
* ''Film/MenBehindTheSun'', [[BasedOnATrueStory based on true events that transpired within Unit-731]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII in occupied Manchuria]], demonstrates how [[MadScientist the Japanese researchers]] gleefully experimented on their captives. [[NauseaFuel Not for the faint of heart]].
* Played for BlackComedy in ''Film/HolmesAndWatson'' when Holmes feeds Watson a deadly poison to test his hypothesis on how the murder was carried out.
* ''Film/JonahHex''. Turnbull tests his steampunk WeaponOfMassDestruction by wiping out a small town. It also has the benefit of demonstrating his willingness to attack civilians, so the US military will be spread thin guarding all the potential targets.

* In ''The Amtrak Wars'' by Patrick Tilley, the Iron Masters demonstrate the new firearms they're selling to the Plainfolk by shooting dead several condemned prisoners. When one samurai misses the target, he's used in the demonstration as well. Afterwards the protagonist Steve Brickman comments on how brave the men were in facing death. One of the Plainfolk replies dryly that [[ColdBloodedTorture considering the alternative]], it was the best fate they could have hoped for.
* {{Literature/Flashman}} presents a brace of pistols to an Afghan chieftain, and witnesses one of them being tested on a slave by the BigBad. Even the amoral Flashman is shocked.

* In ''Literature/TheMigaxCycle'', Mililabs lures in human test subjects by luring desperate people into contracts with them.
* In ''The Master Sniper'' by Creator/StephenHunter, German sharpshooter Lt. Colonel Repp tests his [=StG44=] rifle with newly-developed infra-red scope -- first on some Jewish prisoners, then on an American patrol at the front lines -- before carrying out the assassination he'd been tasked with.

* In ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear: City of the Dead'', a MadScientist tries to [[NightOfTheLivingMooks make zombie soldiers]], which of course means GraveRobbing. But his zombies are smarter and more useful the fresher they are, so he [[WouldHurtAChild murders a twelve-year-old boy]] wandering through the graveyard and then [[UndeadChild tries it on him]].
* Similarly to the ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' example above, in ''Literature/HerbertWestReanimator'', the success rate of Dr. West's research on the "freshness" of the corpses used as test subjects. Thus, in the chapter "The Scream of the Dead", West just walks out, finds the first best nobody that wouldn't be missed, drugs him, kills him later on the table and then ''instantly'' injects the serum into him.
* In ''Literature/{{Firestarter}}'', a government organization called The Shop tests an incredibly dangerous PsychoSerum called Lot Six on [[TestSubjectForHire volunteering college students]], who are told that half of them will be injected with a small dose of harmless hallucinogenic drug and the other half will be injected with water.
* In the ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novels, [[WizardingSchool Unseen University]] routinely tests things on student volunteers, whether they volunteer or not. It's considered that this isn't unethical as long as the students don't know, and since it's the only way in which having students around benefits the faculty, [[ItsAllAboutMe it's probably what they're there for]].
* In the ''Literature/{{Gatling}}'' series, Gatling is paid to test weapons under battlefield conditions. This includes using them on human targets, although he prefers to ensure his targets are people who deserve it.
* ''Literature/TheForeverWar'' starts with the recruits watching a lecture tape on "eight silent ways to kill a man". The protagonist thinks afterwards that some of the actors must have been convicted criminals who had been [[EmptyShell brain-wiped]], as they were really killed.
* In ''Old Virginia'' by Laird Barron, a team of CIA black ops agents is assigned to guard scientists studying a HumanoidAbomination, but it turns out to be a field test to see if 'Virginia' can defeat {{Professional Killer}}s like themselves. [[spoiler:Though even that's a {{subver|tedTrope}}sion, as both scientists and the black ops team are being offered as a HumanSacrifice to the EldritchAbomination that Virginia serves]].

* An example of the good guys using this is in ''[[Series/{{V 1983}} V: The Final Battle]]''. The dust used to kill the Visitors is tested on an alien prisoner. Then, while the others are busy arguing about whether they should find a human collaborator to test it on, one of the [[ProfessorGuineaPig human scientists]] willingly steps into the chamber instead.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Davros tests his [[ApocalypseHow/ClassZ multiverse-destroying]], matter-vaporizer gun on people collected from the streets of London. (The Daleks don't even have to hit anything, just turn it on and bye-bye multiverse.)
* In ''Series/{{Helix}}'', while a team of CDC researchers were ostensibly sent to a remote research base to contain an accidental outbreak of TheVirus, their army liaison tells a CDC teammember that he and his superiors suspect the outbreak may have begun as a deliberate effort to test a developed SyntheticPlague on human subjects that got out of control.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Just to remind the audience that Ser Gregor Clegane is a huge brutish killing machine when he reappears in Season 4, he's introduced using lowborn prisoners as living practice dummies. The prisoners are given weapons, but half-starved men with no training in swordfighting have no chance against the [[TheDreaded dreaded]] [[GiantMook Mountain That Rides]]. So it's LaserGuidedKarma when [[spoiler:a dying Clegane ends up under the 'care' of [[MadDoctor Qyburn]], a disgraced former maester expelled from their order for conducting experiments on living subjects and eager to test out his theories]].
* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''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}}s, and only his [[BizarreAlienBiology very redundant Klingon biology]] allows him to survive and recover.
** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': Our introduction to the evil MirrorUniverse characters in "[[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS04E18InAMirrorDarkly In a Mirror, Darkly]]" has them watching a demonstration of the newly invented [[AgonyBeam 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]]?"
* 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 ailing wife it's mice that he's freezing.
* ''Series/MurderRooms'': A quack doctor has a bullet-deflecting device he's trying to patent, and volunteers one of his servants for a demonstration. To the relief of the terrified woman, Dr. Bell and Mr. Doyle convince him a demonstration is unnecessary.
* ''Series/BlakesSeven'':
** In "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS1E9ProjectAvalon Project Avalon]]", [[SpaceX Space Commander]] [[TheDragon Travis]] orders that a [[DumbMuscle Labour Grade]] prisoner be selected to test a SyntheticPlague. His underling asks what they're to do if there aren't any Labour Grades available, and is told to just go out and arrest someone expendable.
** In "[[Recap/BlakesSevenS2E3Weapon Weapon]]", the eponymous weapon is demonstrated by Servalan on [[BadBoss one of her own soldiers]], just to show our heroes that she has their lives in her hands.
* In one episode of ''Series/{{Freaky}}'', a girl objects to the 'cruelty' that comes from running rats in a maze. Her science teacher and the other male student scoff at this and begin to ''eat'' the rats in the maze. Mortified, the girl runs for her life, only to find that [[spoiler:the doors are not real and she cannot open them]]. When the girl is cornered by the teacher and student, she is [[spoiler:lifted into the air by a giant green hand. It turns out that the school is actually a maze, with 3 aliens studying the students... [[HereWeGoAgain including a female one that objects to the cruelty of running humans through the maze]]]].
* In the ''Series/{{Airwolf}}'' episode "Fight Like a Dove", an ArmsDealer is demonstrating a new anti-aircraft missile on an approaching fighter plane. The people he wants to sell it to say they aren't impressed with a missile that blows up a target drone, but the arms dealer informs them the aircraft is piloted by a mercenary who has been promised a million dollars if he can beat the missile. Let's just say the mercenary dies penniless.
* ''Series/{{Roar}}'': Longinus invents a gunpowder bomb and orders his servants ([[OutsideContextProblem who have no idea what it is]]) to stand in a circle around the bomb until it explodes, to demonstrate to Queen Diana the weapon's ability to kill in all directions.
* ''Series/TheBoys2019'': It's gradually revealed that not only are superheroes created by being injected with [[SuperSerum Compound V]] as infants (with the secret consent of their parents) but that experiments are being conducted on adults to create {{Super Soldier}}s. This is shown to have a high fatality rate even under controlled conditions (which many of the experiments aren't, as [[LensmanArmsRace they're being done by criminals and terrorists]]).
* Towards the end of ''The Heavy Water War'', Werner Heisenberg is shown a file of concentration camp inmates who have been deliberately exposed to radiation to study its effects. The irony is the German nuclear project has long since been ineffective due to lack of support and Allied efforts to sabotage heavy water production.
* ''Series/TheExpanse'': This is TheReveal of Season One. 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.
* In ''Series/{{Highlander}}'', an Immortal walks into an antiques shop that sells assorted bladed weaponry. He asks the proprietor to show him an authentic sword that can stand up to the stresses of combat. The Immortal then tests the Toledo sword by stabbing the proprietor with it.

* ''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 trademark M-16. Needless to say, this is not a good idea.

* On ''Series/UglyBetty'', Marc briefly became someone else's assistant. He did not enjoy it:
-->'''Marc''': Fabia doesn't believe in testing her products on animals, but she does believe in testing them on assistants.

* "Franchise/StarTrek'':
** ''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/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]]?"

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''.

* ''Series/TheExpanse''. This is TheReveal of Season One. 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.
* In ''Series/{{Highlander}}'' 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 then tested the Toledo sword by stabbing the proprietor with it.

* In ''The Master Sniper'' by Stephen Hunter, German sharpshooter Lt. Colonel Repp tests his [=StG44=] rifle with newly-developed infra-red scope -- first on some Jewish prisoners, then on an American patrol at the front lines -- before carrying out the assassination he'd been tasked with.

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 their 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", a ColdSniper hired for an assassination sights in his custom-made rifle on a scarecrow, but is witnessed and has to flee the scene without checking the zero. So the second time he tests the rifle by gunning down a man on a golf course. 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.