Saturday, October 02, 2010

About That Syphilis Thing? We're So Sorry.

The United States is apologizing for infecting hundreds of Guatemalans in the late 40's with veneral diseases in order to test the effects of penicillin.   American researchers initially recruited prostitutes with syphilis to infect test subjects but later moved on to simply injecting victims.

A total of 626 Guatemalans were turned into venereal disease test subjects including men and women from a national mental health hospital.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius have given the Guatemalan victims a real bit "we're sorry" and denounced the tests as "unethical."  Ya think?

1 comment:

Beijing York said...

The Tuskegee Study proved that not all humans are created equal when it comes to ethics. Black people, poor people, mentally ill people, foreigners - their not patients deserving compassion but lab rats ("subjects") worthy of experimentation and observation.

I'm sure there continue to be all sorts of unethical pharma testing, especially in AIDS inflicted Africa.