First, do no harm: the US sexually transmitted disease experiments in Guatemala
- PMID:24134370
- PMCID: PMC3828982
- DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301520
First, do no harm: the US sexually transmitted disease experiments in Guatemala
Abstract
Beginning in 1946, the United States government immorally and unethically-and, arguably, illegally-engaged in research experiments in which more than 5000 uninformed and unconsenting Guatemalan people were intentionally infected with bacteria that cause sexually transmitted diseases. Many have been left untreated to the present day. Although US President Barack Obama apologized in 2010, and although the US Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues found the Guatemalan experiments morally wrong, little if anything has been done to compensate the victims and their families. We explore the backdrop for this unethical medical research and violation of human rights and call for steps the United States should take to provide relief and compensation to Guatemala and its people.
References
- World Bank. World development indicators: Guatemala. Available at:http://data.worldbank.org/country/guatemala. Accessed July 19, 2013.
- Reverby SM. “Normal exposure” and inoculation syphilis: A PHS “Tuskegee” doctor in Guatemala, 1946–1948. J Policy History. 2011;23(1):6–28.
- Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. “Ethically impossible” STD research in Guatemala from 1946–1948. Available at:http://bioethics.gov/sites/default/files/Ethically%20Impossible%20%28wit.... Accessed July 19, 2013.
- White House, Office of the Press Secretary. Read-out of the president’s call with Guatemalan President Colom. Available at:http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/01/read-out-president.... Accessed July 19, 2013.
- Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues. Moral science: protecting participants in human subjects research [To agree to the harm: medical experiments by the United States in Guatemala]. Available at:http://bioethics.gov/sites/default/files/Moral%20Science%20June%202012.pdf. Accessed July 19, 2013.
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