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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.
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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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