of UNC Chapel Hill and published in an American Society of Anesthesiologists newsletter—describes Beecher as an influential figure in the development of medical ethics and research techniques, though he has not been without controversy.

These two articles and a study in Beecher's last year of college caught the attention of Harvard Professor of Surgery, Edward Churchill, M.D., who became his professional mentor.

[10] According to these reports, and partly generated by interest in US historian Alfred W. McCoy's research ,[11] Beecher was scientifically responsible for human experiments with drugs (e.g. mescaline) conducted by the CIA in post-war West-Germany.

These experiments took place in a secret CIA prison located in "Villa Schuster" (later renamed to "Haus Waldhof") in Kronberg near Frankfurt, a dependency of the nearby US interrogation center in Camp King (West-Germany).

According to sources[citation needed] Beecher visited Camp King frequently from September 1951 onwards and prepared human experiments, deliberated with the interrogation staff of the CIA (called "the rough boys") and recommended various drugs for testing.

Allegedly[citation needed], he also met former Nazi physician Walter Schreiber several times, both at Camp King as well as in Villa Schuster, for an "exchange of ideas".

[12] According to the German documentarian Egmont R. Koch, in January 1953, Beecher recommended that a depressive patient at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Hospital be given a mescaline injection.

[10] According to the neuroanesthesiologist George A. Mashour: It may appear paradoxical that Beecher, who advocated the ethical treatment of human subjects, had also engaged in potentially unethical work on hallucinogens for the government.