Guatemala syphilis experiments
[1] Serology studies continued until 1953 involving the same vulnerable populations in addition to children from state-run schools, an orphanage, and rural towns.[3][4][5] Susan Mokotoff Reverby of Wellesley College uncovered information about these experiments in Cutler's archived papers in 2005 while researching the Tuskegee syphilis study.[6][7] Francis Collins, the NIH director at the time of the revelations, called the experiments "a dark chapter in history of medicine" and commented that modern rules prohibit conducting human subject research without informed consent.Surgeon General Thomas Parran, to further the knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases and discover more viable prophylaxis and treatment options in humans.This was largely due to an effort to protect the U.S. military forces from widespread infections of STDs such as gonorrhea, as well as the particularly painful regimen of prophylaxis that involved in the injection of a silver proteinate into subjects' penises.[9][10] The goal of this experiment was to find a more suitable STD prophylaxis by infecting human subjects recruited from prison populations with gonorrhea.It was the first to demonstrate how earnestly military leaders pushed for new developments to combat STDs and their willingness to infect human subjects, and also explained why the study clinicians would choose Guatemala: to avoid the ethical constraints related to individual consent, other adverse legal consequences, and bad publicity.[14] The experiments were funded by a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) to the Pan American Sanitary Bureau; multiple Guatemalan government ministries also got involved.[15] Participants were subjected to the syphilis bacteria through permitted visits with infectious female sex workers, paid by funds from the U.S.[17] Other attempts at passing the pathogens to participants included pouring the bacteria onto various lightly abraded body parts, such as male subjects' genitalia, forearms and faces.[10] Although the study ran for so long and collected massive amounts of data, the researchers never published anything from the Guatemalan syphilis experiments.[19] The initial attempts to infect subjects of the experiment consisted of workers from the USPHS inoculating prostitutes with germs that had grown in rabbits, and then paying them to have sex with prisoners.[14] Researchers switched to the direct inoculation of subjects after Cutler accepted an offer from Carlos Salvado, the director of the Asilo de Alienados, a psychiatric hospital in Guatemala City.Parran once said to Cutler, "You know, we couldn't do such an experiment in this country [United States]", showing he was aware of the ethical issues of what he was doing in Guatemala.[9][23][24] After serving as Surgeon General, Thomas Parran began a career working as the first dean of the new School of Public Health at the University of Pittsburgh.In 1929, Mahoney worked as the director of the Venereal Disease Research Lab in Staten Island, where the Terre Haute experiments began in 1943, and where Cutler first assisted him.[citation needed] After stopping the Terre Haute experiments for lack of accurate infection of subjects with gonorrhea, Mahoney moved on to study the effects of penicillin on syphilis.[9] Mahoney, Cutler, Parran, and other researchers felt that a smaller, more controlled group of individuals to study would be more helpful in finding this cure.[9] After the Guatemala syphilis study, Cutler was asked by the World Health Organization to head an India-based program for demonstrating venereal disease for Southeast Asia in 1949.She initiated the VDRL (Venereal Disease Research Laboratory) and Training Center within Central America starting in 1948 and stayed in Guatemala until 1951.[9] In order to advance in their careers, they opted to stay and continue observations on subjects of the syphilis experiments, including data collection from orphans, inmates, psychiatric patients, and school children.[31] In October 2010, the U.S. government formally apologized and announced that the violation of human rights in that medical research was still to be condemned, regardless of how much time had passed.[32][33][34] Following the apology, Barack Obama requested an investigation to be conducted by the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues on November 24, 2010.The Commission concluded nine months later that the experiments "involved gross violations of ethics as judged against both the standards of today and the researchers' own understanding".The conduct exhibited during the study does not represent the values of the US, or our commitment to human dignity and great respect for the people of Guatemala.Some would also argue that the Guatemala study constituted torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and the US has an obligation under international law to pursue criminal investigations and provide the victims with adequate financial compensation.The suit was dismissed when United States District Judge Reggie Walton determined that the U.S. government has immunity from liability for actions committed outside of the U.S.[40] In April 2015, 774 plaintiffs launched a lawsuit against Johns Hopkins University, the pharmaceutical company Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the Rockefeller Foundation, seeking $1 billion in damages, seeking to hold the university accountable for the experiment itself because the doctors held important roles on panels that reviewed the federal spending on research for other sexually transmitted diseases.
United Stateshuman experimentsGuatemalaJohn Charles CutlerTuskegee syphilis experimentsyphilisgonorrheachancroidinformed consentSerologycrime against humanitySusan Mokotoff ReverbyWellesley CollegeFrancis Collinshuman subject researchSahachiro HataThomas ParranWorld War IIprophylaxisTerre Haute prison experimentsNational Institutes of HealthPan American Sanitary BureauchancroidsThomas Parran, Jr.U.S. Surgeon Generalinoculationsex workersleprosymental hospitalCenters for Disease Control and PreventionSurgeon General of the United StatesUniversity of PittsburghAvalon FoundationMellon familyA. W Mellon Educational and Charitable TrustParran HallMahoneythe University of Pittsburgh medical schoolLasker awardUnited States Public Health ServiceprostitutesGraduate School of Public HealthPan-American Sanitary BureauBarack ObamaPresidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical IssuesHillary ClintonKathleen SebeliusÁlvaro ColomDoctors' TrialInstitute of Medicinemedical researchhuman rights activiststo be compensatedUnited States District JudgeReggie WaltonJohns Hopkins UniversityBristol-Myers SquibbRockefeller FoundationTheodore ChuangHuman experimentation in the United StatesProject MKUltraThe Plutonium FilesMedical ethicsPorton DownUnit 731Nazi human experimentationNuremberg CodeGuatemala–United States relationsUnited States Department of Health and Human ServicesBoston GlobeWayback MachineDemocracy Now!U.S. Department of Health & Human ServicesChris McGrealThe GuardianWashington PostMedical ethics casesBetty and George CoumbiasDax CowartGiovanni NuvoliSue RodriguezRamón SampedroPiergiorgio WelbyJack KevorkianAndrew BednerTony BlandPaul BrophyCarol CarrBaby Doe LawEluana EnglaroJune HartleyVincent LambertRobert LatimerBaby MHaleigh PoutreKaren Ann QuinlanTerri SchiavoGloria TaylorBetancourt v. Trinitas HospitalCommonwealth v. TwitchellLantz v. ColemanAlfie Evans caseArchie Battersbee caseCharlie Gard caseTirhas HabtegirisRom HoubenSun Hudson caseBaby KAshya King caseJesse KoochinJoseph Maraachli caseJahi McMath caseSarah MurnaghanSpiro Nikolouzos caseAruna Shanbaug caseDavid VetterAshley TreatmentGillick competenceMarion's CaseSchloendorff v. Society of New York HospitalChristiane VöllingAbdullahi v. Pfizer, Inc.Albert StevensAlbert Kligman's dermatology experimentsDavid ReimerDeep sleep therapy