U.S. Admitted Experimenting on Guatemala

Hillary Clinton offered apologies for unethical medical experiments.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered apologies to the government of Guatemala for medical experiments that were conducted in jails and psychiatric clinics in Guatemala by American doctors more than 60 years ago. More than 700 Guatemalans were intentionally infected with STDs to test the use of penicillin. The experiments were carried out by medical researchers of the National Institutes of Health and were funded by the U.S. government.

From 1946-1948, the participants of these experiments were prisoners, mental patients and even soldiers. The U.S. medical researchers sought out prostitutes with syphilis or gonorrhea and provided them free entry to the territory of prisons and military bases to pass the infection. In some cases, the infection was introduced to the subjects by injection. After that, the infected men were given penicillin, but it is not clear whether they were cured.

“Although these events occurred more than 64 years ago, we are outraged that such reprehensible research could have occurred under the guise of public health,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The records of experiments in Guatemala were discovered in the archives of Pittsburgh University by Susan Reverby, a Wellesley College professor in Massachusetts. According to the reports, the experiments were led by Dr. John Cutler, who was a founder of the infamous Tuskegee experiment, the study of the spread of syphilis among the African-American population — who were denied treatment — in Tuskegee, Alabama. The study lasted from 1932 to 1972.

For the first time, Susan Reverby presented her findings at a scientific conference in January 2010, but nobody took notice. In June, her report was sent to the U.S. administration, and the CDC started an investigation.

Last Thursday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton notified the president of Guatemala via telephone about the experiment and offered official apologies. The information stirred a wave of anger among the Guatemalan people. Some relatives of the infected men announced their intention to sue the U.S. government to receive compensation for damages. Nevertheless, the statement from the State Department to President Alvaro Colom did not mention a word regarding any kind of compensation.