By bringing together the experiences of Vietnam War Veterans and Byers the article "V.A. Hospital Pays For Human Guinea Pigs: Performs Psychosurgery on Black Oakland Youth" brings attention to how when tied with oppressive systems for example classism and racism there can be coercive or abusive practices of medical research and experimentation among veterans.

Intersection of the Military Industrial Complex and Medical Industrial Complex

The Article connects the advertisement run in the San Francisco Chronicle and the story of Lou Byers by noting that both raised alarm about practices at the V.A. hospitals.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The article "V.A. Hospital Pays For Human Guinea Pigs: Performs Psychosurgery on Black Oakland Youth" discusses an advertisement running in the San Francisco Chronicle recruiting healthy male veterans for a paid research study where they would receive two spinal taps over two days.

Ad for Psychosurgery

Wallace said that Byers at many points threatened to kill himself and expressed to her that he was suicidal due to racism he experienced from the hospital staff.

Effects of Hospital Mistreatment on Byers

Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478027003

Black Disability Politics

Discussion of Ad in the San Francisco Chronicle and Lou Byers

It is noteworthy that the V.A. hospital was recruiting explicitly veterans for the spinal tap procedure because as opposed to veterans of other wars, in the 1970s the majority of the veterans of the Vietnam War were unemployed which made them targets of V.A. exploitation. 

Exploitation of Vietnam War Veterans

The appeal noted in the article title is that the probation department is threatening to revoke his parole.

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