Government and Health: One More Ignoble Experiment
The United States government has apologized for deliberately infecting hundreds of people in Guatemala with gonorrhea and syphilis as part of medical tests more than 60 years ago.
Full article on the experiment that ran from 1932 to 1972.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN2Yy2cd1Hs
Who’s sorry now?
One of many infamous experiments, it turns out.
This is why we need a separation of medicine and state, just like there is a separation of church and state.
Health care is too important to allow political entities to have control over it.
Vioxx.
Steve
My initial thought… How did they infect the prisoners? Apparently they tried to do it the “old fashion” way. When that proved too unreliable, researchers tried a more direct means — which also provided unreliable. Part of the reason they abandon the research was because it was proving too difficult to transfer the infections to test whether the intervention (prophylactic penicillin) could prevent the infection in the treatment group.
Although this took place 60 years ago, it’s still hard to understand how the CDC and federal health service researchers never thought this not unethical.
I don’t think they’re all that sorry.