The US Should Compensate Guatemalan Experiment Victims

Guatemalan President Álvaro Colom marked a new development in an appalling case yesterday when he offered to compensate survivors of a U.S. medical experiment that saw 2,082 Guatemalans intentionally infected with syphilis and gonorrhea between 1946 and 1948. Colom did not specify the amount of compensation.

When these repulsive practices were uncovered in October of last year, U.S. President Barack Obama issued an apology to Guatemala, which U.S. Ambassador Arnold Chacon reiterated yesterday.

Colom’s offer is understandable considering Guatemalan health officials authorized the experiments, which were carried out by 10 American doctors and 12 Guatemalans, according to historian Susan Reverby’s 2010 investigation that uncovered the case. American John Cutler led the inhumane experiments for two years in Guatemala, before moving on to similar research in Alabama on poor people and African Americans.

Nevertheless, so much time has passed that, practically speaking, very few people would directly benefit from the investigation. In fact, only six people have been found, and it is very likely that most victims and their descendants will not identify themselves due to the social stigma attached to the diseases they were infected with.

The United States should be responsible for compensation for their role in the experiments. This should include the creation of an institute specializing in medical ethics and investigations. Unlike the Guatemalans, who were victims or somehow pressured to cooperate in the research, the responsibility of the United States is more easily proved.

Another reason the United States should support a compensation fund for victims and the creation of this institute is the fact that for many years after 1948, some U.S. pharmaceutical companies produced drugs labeled “for export only” because their side effects had not been sufficiently researched for use within the United States. The practice of selling these pharmaceuticals cannot be justified from any point of view, and it is infuriating that these sales lasted for so many years and affected thousands of people.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that these shameful experiments would not be able to be carried out today. There have been advances in human rights and the practical application of medical ethics, as well as severe punishment for those who don’t comply. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t still be outraged by what happened 65 years ago.