US Apologizes for 1940s STD Study Infecting Guatemalans with Syphilis

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In summary: Guatemala gave the US authorization to conduct the studies, so it's extremely doubtful anything will be done. Has Guatemala apologized to its people?The atrocities carried out on the black men in the US didn't gain this much response and were even worse.
  • #1
Gokul43201
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US Apologizes for 1940s STD Study That Infected Guatemalans With Syphilis

In 1946, American researchers performed an appalling experiment, infecting unwitting Guatemalans with a potentially deadly disease in the name of public health.

In an effort to see if penicillin could prevent or treat syphilis, government scientists went to the impoverished Central American country to deliberately infect nearly 700 men and women -- including prisoners, inmates in insane asylums, and even some soldiers -- with the potentially fatal sexually transmitted disease.

The researchers used prostitutes to infect the men and hypodermic needles to infect the women.

The experiments, which lasted from 1946 to 1949, were uncovered last year by Susan Reverby, a professor at Wellesley College, as she was researching a book.
...
President Obama himself spoke with the president of Guatemala, Alvaro Colom, via phone today to express "deep regret" over the study, the White House said in a statement.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius also issued a joint apology today in a written statement.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/us-apologi...alans-syphilis-1940s/story?id=11779633&page=1

So what do you think is the right thing for the US Govt to do now? I say you carry out a full investigation, but I'm not sure if you can actually prosecute anyone anymore. Is there a statute of limitations that would apply, or could any remaining principals (probably in their 90s by now) of the experiment be prosecuted for human rights abuses (which seem to be immune from term limits)? What else? Could civil suits follow?
 
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  • #2
I think this rises to the level of a crime against humanity. It should be tried in international court. Prosecute anyone and all directly involved in the decisions or actions (if any still alive). Those guilty, - death by hanging (probably not an option now).
 
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  • #3
I think it doesn't really matter at this point; too much time has passed and it isn't a super huge event.
 
  • #4
The country of Guatemala gave the US authorization to conduct the studies, so it's extremely doubtful anything will be done. Has Guatemala apologized to its people?

The atrocities carried out on the black men in the US didn't gain this much response and were even worse.

It was done in conjunction with the Guatemalan government," Reverby told The Upshot in a phone interview Friday morning. "They had permission from the Guatemalan government."

The discovery of the long-ago experiments stems from another, far better known episode of federal tampering with test subjects to study sexually transmitted diseases: the long-running "Tuskegee experiment," studying 399 poor black men from Macon County, Ala., who had been diagnosed with syphilis but never informed of their condition. Federal scientists simply told the men they had "bad blood" and researchers compiled a four-decades-long study monitoring "untreated syphilis in the male Negro." Researchers never treated the illness over its usually fatal course, even after the simple remedy of penicillin was shown to be an effective syphilis treatment; participants received only free meals and medical exams, together with federal funding of their funeral expenses after they died. The study began in 1932, continuing right through to 1972, when it was exposed in media reports.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101001/hl_yblog_upshot/u-s-apologizes-to-guatemalans-for-secret-std-experiments [Broken]
 
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  • #5
I don't think the Tuskegee experiment was really morally wrong. The subjects received much more than they would have without any monitoring/study done on them.
 
  • #6
G037H3 said:
I don't think the Tuskegee experiment was really morally wrong. The subjects received much more than they would have without any monitoring/study done on them.
It's arguable, the Guatamalans that were given to the US by the Guatemalan government were inmates in mental and penal institutions and weren't able to spread syphilis. The black men in the US were not sequestered from the public and there is no telling how many thousands of innocent people might have been infected and died as a result.

Both are unconscionable, but the number of people involved in the US black population is unimaginable.
 
  • #7
Gokul43201 said:
So what do you think is the right thing for the US Govt to do now?

keep apologizing? there's no shortage of other stuff, like operation gladio, torture, agent orange, nuking japan, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, overthrowing democratically-elected governments, propping up military dictatorships, death squads, reaganomics, etc etc
 
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  • #8
fourier jr said:
keep apologizing? there's no shortage of other stuff, like operation gladio, torture, agent orange, nuking japan, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, overthrowing democratically-elected governments, propping up military dictatorships, death squads, reaganomics, etc etc

>implying reaganomics fits in with the other items in your list
 
  • #9
stevenb said:
I think this rises to the level of a crime against humanity. It should be tried in international court. Prosecute anyone and all directly involved in the decisions or actions (if any still alive). Those guilty, - death by hanging (probably not an option now).

the US carried out radiation experiments on its own citizens. and when this came out during the Clinton administration, all that was given was a "thank you for your service to our country".

nothing will be done.
 
  • #10
G037H3 said:
I don't think the Tuskegee experiment was really morally wrong. The subjects received much more than they would have without any monitoring/study done on them.

Are you being facetious? The government knew they had syphilis but didn't treat them, just to watch what happens in the progression of the disease. Treatments were available, though (in fact, it was curable after ~1940). The men in the study were never told what they had, and never consented to be part of the study.

Victims included numerous men who died of syphilis, wives who contracted the disease, and children born with congenital syphilis.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment

How is that not morally wrong?
 
  • #11
G037H3 said:
I don't think the Tuskegee experiment was really morally wrong. The subjects received much more than they would have without any monitoring/study done on them.

That's a very funny statement - deliberately infecting a person knowing that they may die from the infection violates any ethics or guidelines. (there are other ways to test )

Its like saying the abuse in abu graib was not morally wrong because they were prisoners.
 
  • #12
lisab said:
Are you being facetious? The government knew they had syphilis but didn't treat them, just to watch what happens in the progression of the disease. Treatments were available, though (in fact, it was curable after ~1940). The men in the study were never told what they had, and never consented to be part of the study.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_syphilis_experiment

How is that not morally wrong?
Of course it's morally wrong. But so what? I'm not being flippant. It's just that this is history. And there's nothing that you or I or anybody else is going to do about it. Or can do about it. The US government did, and is doing, lots of morally wrong things. It's perpetrated many crimes against humanity. And it's doing this in the interest of preserving a way of life that we've become accustomed to. No, that we ... cherish. So what do you suggest we do about it? What should we do about it if we agree with the government's protecting our way of life, no matter what? Nothing? Thank you. We're doing that.
 
  • #13
G037H3 said:
I don't think the Tuskegee experiment was really morally wrong. The subjects received much more than they would have without any monitoring/study done on them.

That's simply not true. If they had been told they had syphilis, which was a curable disease when they had it, they would have gotten treatment. Instead, doctors actively prevented them from finding out what they really had. The doctors they went to see outright lied to them about their condition, and refused to treat them.

I'd really like you to explain how getting no treatment for their condition is receiving "much more" than they would have without the study.
 
  • #14
ThomasT said:
Of course it's morally wrong. But so what? I'm not being flippant. It's just that this is history. And there's nothing that you or I or anybody else is going to do about it. Or can do about it. The US government did, and is doing, lots of morally wrong things. It's perpetrated many crimes against humanity. And it's doing this in the interest of preserving a way of life that we've become accustomed to. No, that we ... cherish. So what do you suggest we do about it? What should we do about it if we agree with the government's protecting our way of life, no matter what? Nothing? Thank you. We're doing that.

one hopes that we at least learn from our mistakes and try not to repeat them.
 
  • #15
Proton Soup said:
one hopes that we at least learn from our mistakes and try not to repeat them.
Well, I was trying to elicit a more, er, elaborate response from one of the mentors or whoever. Apparently it's true that nobody really does care. So why even bother talking about the transgressions of our government. Let's just let them do ... whatever, as long as we're comfortable in our nice american-dream middle class lifestyles. After all, that's what they're betting on, isn't it?
 
  • #16
ThomasT said:
Of course it's morally wrong. But so what? I'm not being flippant. It's just that this is history. And there's nothing that you or I or anybody else is going to do about it. Or can do about it. The US government did, and is doing, lots of morally wrong things. It's perpetrated many crimes against humanity. And it's doing this in the interest of preserving a way of life that we've become accustomed to. No, that we ... cherish. So what do you suggest we do about it? What should we do about it if we agree with the government's protecting our way of life, no matter what? Nothing? Thank you. We're doing that.

Do you have any evidence that ensuring Americans keep our a cushy lifestyle required infecting anyone, anywhere on the planet, with syphilis?

You're mixing elements into the discussion that don't belong.
 
  • #17
lisab said:
Do you have any evidence that ensuring Americans keep our a cushy lifestyle required infecting anyone, anywhere on the planet, with syphilis?
No of course not. The point was that our cushy lifestyle, (And it is cushy, and I like it as much as anyone else.), sort of makes us not want to confront some of the things that our government might have to do to ensure the continuation of that cushy lifestyle.
 
  • #18
ThomasT said:
No of course not. The point was that our cushy lifestyle, (And it is cushy, and I like it as much as anyone else.), sort of makes us not want to confront some of the things that our government might have to do to ensure the continuation of that cushy lifestyle.

OK, I do agree that there is quite a lot of "fat and happy" going on in the US. There seems a reluctance to 'hold feet to the fire', unless there's political gain to be made of it.

In this case though, like others have said, all the responsible parties are likely either dead or very very old. We should investigate who/what/where was involved, repair any damage (e.g., reparations), and offer our sincere apology.
 
  • #19
lisab said:
OK, I do agree that there is quite a lot of "fat and happy" going on in the US. There seems a reluctance to 'hold feet to the fire', unless there's political gain to be made of it.

In this case though, like others have said, all the responsible parties are likely either dead or very very old. We should investigate who/what/where was involved, repair any damage (e.g., reparations), and offer our sincere apology.
I regret that I even posted anything in this thread. I need to stay away from these sorts of threads. I get emotional about these sorts of things. They make me very angry. And sometimes I say things that I shouldn't. You know what I mean. Useless venting. Solves nothing. No point.

And, 'official' apologies are easy. I'm ashamed and disgusted when I learn of these sorts of things, and, honestly, I really don't have any idea what to do that would make any difference.
 

1. What exactly happened in the STD study in Guatemala during the 1940s?

During the 1940s, the United States Public Health Service conducted a study in which they intentionally infected over 1,300 Guatemalan citizens with syphilis, gonorrhea, and chancroid without their consent or knowledge. The individuals were often vulnerable populations, such as prisoners, mental health patients, and soldiers.

2. Why did the US apologize for this study?

In 2010, the US government publicly apologized for the unethical and inhumane actions of the Public Health Service during the Guatemala study. The study was a gross violation of medical ethics and human rights, and the apology was a recognition of the harm and trauma caused to the individuals and their families.

3. What were the consequences of the study for the affected individuals?

The individuals who were infected with STDs during the study suffered from severe health consequences, including chronic pain, infertility, and even death. Many also faced social stigma and discrimination due to their infections. The study also had intergenerational impacts, as the children of the infected individuals were born with health complications.

4. Has the US taken any actions to address the harm caused by the study?

In addition to the public apology, the US government also established a Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to investigate the study and its impacts. The commission issued a report with recommendations for compensation and reparations for the affected individuals and their families.

5. How has this study impacted the field of medical ethics?

The Guatemala STD study has been widely condemned as a violation of basic ethical principles in medical research, such as informed consent and beneficence. It has also sparked discussions and reforms in the regulations and oversight of human subjects research to prevent similar abuses from happening in the future.

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