83 died in Guatemala 1940s US experiments: panel(named by President Obama)

Source: AFP

At least 83 people died in US medical experiments in Guatemala during the 1940s involving sexually transmitted diseases, a commission investigating the program concluded Monday.

Nearly 5,500 people were subjected to diagnostic testing, and more than 1,300 were exposed to venereal diseases by contact or inoculations, the commission found.

Within that group, "we believe that there were 83 deaths," said commission member Stephen Hauser.

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US President Barack Obama created the commission last year, after news of the experiments came to light.



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hJyLLOEcaG4OSAaTpJLTX7F-OiNw?docId=CNG.f17dd620575edb02954a7f8f0971f63b.821

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A presidential ethics panel today excoriated the late Dr. John Cutler, an acting dean at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1960s, and his colleagues at the U.S. Public Health Service for deliberately infecting hundreds of Guatemalan prisoners, mental patients, soldiers and prostitutes with syphilis from 1946 to 1948, including 83 who died.

The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues concluded that Dr. Cutler's experiments were morally indefensible, even for the standards of the time, and that he and his fellow doctors tried to keep secret what they were doing because they knew it was wrong.

Commission Chair Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, said the doctors had a duty to "first do no harm" and to protect vulnerable populations.

"Clearly in this history we failed to keep that covenant," she said.



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11241/1170730-100.stm#ixzz1WSLyptw1

From 2nd article in OP.


The university started a lecture series in his name after he died in 2003, but discontinued it in 2008 after a new dean learned of his role in the infamous experiments at Tuskegee, Ala., in which the PHS withheld treatment for black sharecroppers infected with syphilis to track the disease.

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11241/1170730-100.stm#ixzz1WSW51zei

Persons, any persons worldwide, that are involved in shit like this are sick in the head.

I think we would all be amazed at the things that have been done to innocent people /makes me ashamed

Some scholars believe that as many as 90% of American Indians died from disease alone, and that the continent was much more populous than people think.

He found blankets that were underpriced because they had been used for the sick. He then pocketed the excess cash. When the federal gov't found out what he had done, he was arrested and jailed for embezzlement.

So it was the action of a single, crooked individual for money, not for the purpose of hurting the Indians (though he was certainly guilty of depraved indifference). It was not a sanctioned action by the US gov't.

Panel: U.S. syphilis experiments in Guatemala in 1940s worse than feared
By Mike Stobbe The Associated Press
Posted: 08/29/2011 07:19:48 PM PDT
Updated: 08/29/2011 07:19:54 PM PDT


ATLANTA - A presidential panel on Monday disclosed shocking new details of U.S. medical experiments done in Guatemala in the 1940s, including a decision to re-infect a dying woman in a syphilis study.

~snip~
"The researchers put their own medical advancement first and human decency a far second," said Anita Allen, a member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

~snip~
For example, seven women with epilepsy, who were housed at Guatemala's Asilo de Alienados (Home for the Insane), were injected with syphilis below the back of the skull, a risky procedure. The researchers thought the new infection might somehow help cure epilepsy. The women each got bacterial meningitis, probably as a result of the unsterile injections, but were treated.

Perhaps the most disturbing details involved a female syphilis patient with an undisclosed terminal illness. The researchers, curious to see the impact of an additional infection, infected her with gonorrhea in her eyes and elsewhere. Six months later she died.

More:
http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_18783776?nclick_check=1

Guatemala syphilis experiments: why the US's apology may not be enough

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/2010/oct/08/guatemala-syphilis-experiments-us-apology?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487


US medical tests in Guatemala 'crime against humanity'
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11457552


background - also includes link to research

And the beat goes on.A century from today people will read about the Bush/Chaney criminals and our future children will suffer because of the greed and hate of the present generation of republicans and their enabling partners the democrats.This country need to expose the criminals in our midst today not wait fifty years down the road,indict both Bush administrations for crimes against humanity,if not we are all guilty of aiding the criminals of today.Are we all going to continue to play the role of the good German by closing our eyes to the evil of our officials,we helped elect the scum it's our business to shed light on their behavior.?