By Kollengode S Venkataraman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, December 1993
Headlines on news articles, everyone agrees, have the primary purpose of drawing the readers’ attention. However, the headline should also reflect the overall content of the story and the nuances of the social backdrop. And in this context, in your headline “Germans Used Corpses in Tests” (Nov. 24) for the story on simulated auto crashes using corpses of adults and children, your tone was clearly pejorative. The headline was troublesome for other reasons as well.
It was sensational at the very best. But it was worse. The headline, which implied that only Germans used dead bodies in tests simulating auto crashes, was also misleading. The Associated Press story, at the very end, tells that similar tests, initiated probably by the Big-Three automakers, were conducted at a publicly funded university in Michigan.
And in the context of the special guilt, angst, and burden that Germany carries on account of the original ethnic cleansing and unethical biological research during the last global war, your headline was also subliminally slanderous to today’s German
Ethically, and even biologically, questionable tests are carried out routinely on animals for developing “new and improved” cosmetics. Drug companies routinely test drugs on animals and sick people.
Also, surgical procedures — criticized as questionable by the medical establishments themselves – are common with hourly TV updates. Remember Barney Clark carrying the artificial heart? All these are done in the name of advancing science and technology, and to improve the quality of life. Other compelling motives, such as fame, publicity and profit, are not explicitly stated. Therefore, why a pejoratively sensational headline for a news item describing the use of cadavers in tests simulating auto crashes?
If we can use organs of dead or dying persons and save the lives of sick people having access to very expensive medical care, what is sensational in a news item about using bodies in simulating auto crashes? In all probability, these tests may be helpful for developing safer carseats, seat belts, windshields or airbags that may prevent the death — and worse still, the mutilation of thousands of healthy people, rich and poor. END