Scientists hid fatal sex tests in Guatemala but sought approval in US US GOVERNMENT researchers who purposely infected subjects with sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala in the 1940s had conducted similar experiments a few years earlier in Indiana but had obtained permission, investigators said.
The contrast between how the US Public Health Service scientists experimented with Americans and Guatemalans showed that researchers knew their conduct was unethical, members of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which is investigating the experiment, said this week.
The commission found that 1300 people were exposed to the sexually transmitted diseases syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid and that at least 83 people had died.
In one case, a woman who was infected with syphilis was clearly dying from the disease, but instead of treating her, the researchers poured gonorrhea-infected pus into her eyes and other orifices and infected her again with syphilis. She died six months later.
The ultimate goal of the Guatemalan research was to discover if using penicillin after sex would protect against syphilis, gonorrhea and chancroid.
The experiments included infecting prisoners by bringing them prostitutes who were either already carrying the diseases or were purposely infected by the researchers.
In the studies conducted in Indiana, researchers exposed 241 prison inmates to gonorrhea in 1943 and 1944. But there, the researchers explained the experiments in advance and used only prisoners who volunteered.
In contrast, many of the same researchers who began experimenting on Guatemalans a few years later actively hid what they were doing and never tried to obtain permission.
Read more:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/scientists-hid-fatal-sex-tests-in-guatemala-but-sought-approval-in-us-20110902-1jq2m.html#ixzz1WogMdZ1C
