This issue of experimenting on unsuspecting people is very troublesome. Sturgeon explains that the aliens who experiment with the inmates of a boarding house are not much different in their intentions than human scientists: Living in our midst, here and now, is a man who occupies himself with the weight-gain of amebae from their natal instant to the moment they fission. There is a man, who, having produced neurosis in cats, turns them into alcoholics for study. Someone has at long last settled the matter of the camel's capacity for, and retention of, water. People like these are innocent of designs on the destines of all amoebae, cats, camels and cultures; there are simply certain things they want to know.

Studies like these are routine aspects of the biological sciences, but they acquire a profound perspective when the subjects are human beings. Is it acceptable to...