J. David Litster, vice president and dean for research at MIT, indicated he did not think his institution will have to compensate test subjects.

"I think the task force concluded that no harm was done," Litster said.

Asked by reporters to explain how such basic violations of human rights might have happened, Department of Mental Retardation Commissioner Philip Campbell said discrimination against disabled people had been the main factor.

"The most overriding issue is that people with disabilities are often devalued in society," said Campbell, who established the task force.

In an awkward moment for the task force, Charles Dyer, a subject of one of Benda's experiments and a task force member, appeared to question some of the report's findings. Dyer, 53, said he thought it was possible that test subjects had suffered health effects and wondered whether the government or universities might be covering up the existence of similar experiments.

"We were brought up here to be taught things and to learn. But we were used, and I don't think that's right," said Dyer, now a truck driver receiving workers compensation. "It seems like everything is being covered up."

Austin LaRocque, a 53-year-old construction worker, was Dyer's friend and also a test subject during his nine years at Fernald. He said the publicity resulting from the state investigation has hurt his career and personal life.

"This has affected me in many ways. It has affected my family," said LaRocque, a member of the task force. "I had to use an assumed name and I've lost jobs because of this school [Fernald]."

LaRocque and Dyer were both members of the so-called "Fernald Science Club," a group of students enticed with trips and parties to participate in the tests.

"The provision of special rewards...otherwise unavailable to individuals confined in an institutionalized setting...resulted in the research subjects being unfairly enticed by those conducting the research," the report states in one of its 11 findings.

Task force members also vehemently condemned a series of theyroid experiments and a nuclear fallout study conducted at other state schools for the retarded.

Misilo said he was "particularly horrified" at the nuclear fallout experiment conducted "on babies" at the Wrentham State School in Wrentham, Mass. A Harvard Medical School assistant professor and a Harvard researcher conducted the 1961 experiment in which they fed "mentally defective" children aged one to 11 small doses of radioactive iodine.

White-Lief said researchers delegated the task schools' superintendents, thereby failing to ensure that the informed consent of the subjects was obtained "Each of the researchers had a non-delegable duty. The duty rested on the researchers," White-Lief said.

The 272-page report cites the task force's three main findings:

. The research conducted on human subjects at or form state schools between 1943 and 1973 that involved the introduction of radioactive substances into their bodies was conducted in violation of the fundamental human rights of the subjects involved.