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The Times of India
The Times of India
World
TOI World Desk

Latin proverb of the day: 'Let the experiment be made on a low-value body' — A chilling glimpse into early science and ethics debates that still echo today

Ethics Francis Bacon Immanuel Kant

At first glance, the phrase sounds like something carved into the stone walls of an ancient laboratory—cold, detached, and unsettlingly clinical. It carries the weight of a world where knowledge was pursued with fewer ethical brakes and where the value of a “body” could be weighed against the urgency of discovery. But behind this Latin maxim lies a long and complicated intellectual history that still echoes in modern debates about science, ethics, and power.

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