Guatemala syphilis experiment

 Guatemala syphilis experiment (murder,  research)

Date	1946 - 1948
Perpetrators	U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. National Institutes of Health
Exposed by	Susan Mokotoff Reverby
Description	A murderous experiment which infected healthy subjects with syphilis, gonorrhea, chancroid and possibly other diseases.

Background

The U.S. Public Health Service was facing problems after World War II with a lot of veterans suffering from sexually transmitted diseases. The experiments were lead by the US PHS, funded by a grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health to the Pan American Sanitary Bureau.

Exposure

Information about these experiments was uncovered by Professor Susan Mokotoff Reverby of Wellesley College. Reverby found documents in 2005 in Cutler's archived papers while researching the Tuskegee syphilis study. Later she discovered that they related to a wholly unknown experiment which was carried out outside the US because of legal concerns.

Response

In October 2010, Hillary Clinton and Kathleen Sebelius made a joint statement:

Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health. We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices. 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.

A class action lawsuit was brought on behalf of the victims, but the United States government claimed "sovereign immunity" under the Federal Tort Claims Act, stating that the US Supreme Court "clarified" that the immunity statute "bars all claims based on any injury suffered in a foreign country, regardless of where the tortuous act or omission occurred."

Many thanks to our Patrons who cover ~2/3 of our hosting bill. Please join them if you can.

This is a page stub. Please add to it.