The Prison Visit
Herb Rice and his grandchildren visit Holmesburg Prison for the first time since his incarceration.
This scene follows Herb Rice as he returns to the site where he was subjected to unethical medical experiments in the 1960s and 70s. In a reflective conversation with his grandchildren, he recounts the radiation, drug, and skin tests conducted under Dr. Albert Kligman and funded by major pharmaceutical companies and the University of Pennsylvania. Herb describes how the experiments caused lifelong psychological trauma, addiction, and violent outbursts, and how many fellow test subjects later died by suicide. His grandchildren connect his experiences to modern systems of exploitation, likening the tests to a form of slavery and exposing how products like Retin-A and tretinoin—developed from those experiments—remain profitable today. Together, the family confronts the generational impact of the abuse, calling for transparency, reparations, and acknowledgment of the systemic racism that enabled it.
The Medical Ethics Panel
The Survivors of the Holmesburg Prison Experiments visit Penn Medicine to speak to an auditorium filled with Pre-Med Students.
On May 26, 2026, Penn Medicine held a panel discussion with the Holmesburg survivors, family members, and author Allen Hornblum about the legacy of the Holmesburg Prison experiments and their continuing impact today. The conversation reframes Holmesburg not as a closed historical event but as an ongoing ethical failure whose consequences continue to affect survivors, their families, and public trust in medicine. Survivors describe how poverty, incarceration, and desperation made them vulnerable to participating in experiments, while family members and advocates connect the abuse to generational trauma, distrust of medical institutions, and broader systems of racial and economic exploitation. Throughout the event, speakers emphasize that apologies alone are insufficient, calling instead for accountability, mental health services, educational opportunities for descendants, compensation for survivors, and institutional commitments to restorative justice. The discussion ultimately serves as both a historical reckoning and a challenge to future physicians to confront the profession’s past abuses and uphold ethical obligations to the communities they serve.