Guinea Pigs: US Performed Medical Experiments on Guatemalans, Prisoners
The United States government has made the shocking admission that its 1940s-era scientists deliberately infected Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases – and even gave a dying woman syphilis. The horrifying revelation was made this week by a panel commissioned by President Obama to investigate the dark chapter in American medical history.
More than 1,300 Guatemalans were given various STDs between 1946 and 1948 to see if the diseases could be treated with penicillin, and at least 83 people died during the trials, the panel discovered. The findings, some of which were revealed to the White House last year, prompted Obama to call his Guatemalan counterpart to apologize.
The scientists’ methods were stunning even when considering the different medical ethics in the post-World War II era, according to the presidential panel. (more…)
