I don't understand the article (and most of the comments) to be about the lack of consent, but about the act itself: deliberately making people sad. In most me

I don't understand the article (and most of the comments) to be about the lack of consent, but about the act itself: deliberately making people sad. In most medical studies, that's not being done. You might give someone placebos and watch what happens when you don't give them the medication you want to test, but you're not giving people cancer to see what helps best. I'm not sure consent would've made a fundamental difference to that reaction to it.