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Guatemala syphilis experiment

The syphilis experiments in Guatemala were United States-led human experiments conducted in Guatemala from
1946 to 1948. It was done during the administration of American President Harry S. Truman and Guatemalan President
Juan José Arévalo with the cooperation of some Guatemalan health ministries and officials.[1] Doctors infected soldiers,
prostitutes, prisoners and mental patients with syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases, without the informed
consent of the subjects, and treated most subjects with antibiotics. This resulted in at least 83 deaths.[2] In October 2010,
the U.S. formally apologized to Guatemala for conducting these experiments.

The experiments were led by physician John Charles Cutler who also participated in the late stages of the Tuskegee
syphilis experiment.

Contents
Experiments
Apology and response
Lawsuits
See also
References
External links

Experiments
The experiments were led by United States Public Health Service
physician John Charles Cutler,[3] who had earlier participated in
the similar Terre Haute prison experiments, in which volunteer
prisoners were infected with gonorrhea.[4]:13 In archived
documents, Dr. Thomas Parran, Jr., the U.S. Surgeon General at
the time of the experiments, acknowledged that the Guatemalan
work could not be done domestically, and details were hidden
from Guatemalan officials.[5][6]
Guatemala
The experiments were funded by a grant from the U.S. National
Institutes of Health (NIH) to the Pan American Sanitary Bureau
and involved multiple Guatemalan government ministries.[1] A total of about 1500 study subjects were involved although
the findings were never published.[1]

Cutler later took part in the late stages of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. While the Tuskegee experiment followed the
natural progression of syphilis in those already infected, in Guatemala doctors deliberately infected healthy people with
the diseases, some of which can be fatal if untreated. The goal of the study seems to have been to determine the effect of
penicillin in the prevention and treatment of venereal diseases. The researchers paid prostitutes infected with syphilis to

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have sex with prisoners and some subjects were infected by directly inoculating them with the bacterium.[1] Through
intentional exposure to gonorrhea, syphilis, and chancroid, a total of 1,308 people were involved in the experiments. Of
that group, with an age range of 10-72, 678 individuals (52%) can be said to have received a form of treatment.[4]:41

The study appears to have ended in 1948, partly because of medical “gossip” about the work, and partly because penicillin
was very costly. However, some follow-up laboratory testing and patient observation continued until the early 1950s.

Additionally, similar research was also conducted on the transmission and prophylaxis of gonorrhea and chancroid.[7] The
subjects for all of the STD experiments consisted of female sex workers, prisoners, soldiers, and mental hospital patients;
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledges that "the design and conduct of the studies was unethical in
many respects, including deliberate exposure of subjects to known serious health threats, lack of knowledge of and
consent for experimental procedures by study subjects, and the use of highly vulnerable populations."[7]

Apology and response

Information about these experiments was uncovered by Professor Susan Mokotoff Reverby of Wellesley College. Reverby
found the documents in 2005 while researching the Tuskegee syphilis study, in Cutler's archived papers, and shared her
findings with United States government officials.[1][5]

Francis Collins, the NIH director at the time of the revelations, called the experiments "a dark chapter in history of
medicine" and commented that modern rules prohibit conducting human subject research without informed consent.[8]

In October 2010, the U.S. government formally apologized and announced that the violation of human rights in that
medical research was still to be condemned, regardless of how much time had passed.[9][10][11] In a joint statement,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said:

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. We deeply regret that it happened, and we apologize to
all the individuals who were affected by such abhorrent research practices. The conduct exhibited during the
study does not represent the values of the US, or our commitment to human dignity and great respect for the
people of Guatemala.[12]

President Barack Obama apologized to President Álvaro Colom, who had called the experiments "a crime against
humanity".[13]

"It is clear from the language of the report that the U.S. researchers understood the profoundly unethical nature of the
study. In fact the Guatemalan syphilis study was being carried out just as the “Doctors' Trial” was unfolding at Nuremberg
(December 1946 – August 1947), when 23 German physicians stood trial for participating in Nazi programs to euthanize
or medically experiment on concentration camp prisoners."[14]

The U.S. government asked the Institute of Medicine to conduct a review of these experiments.[1] Separately, the
Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues was asked to convene a panel of international experts to review
the current state of medical research on humans around the world and ensure that such incidents cannot be repeated.[1]
The Commission report, Ethically Impossible: STD Research in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948, published in September
2011, concluded that "the Guatemala experiments involved unconscionable basic violations of ethics, even as judged
against the researchers' own recognition of the requirements of the medical ethics of the day."[15][16]

Human rights activists have called for subjects' families to be compensated.[3]

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Lawsuits
In March 2011, seven plaintiffs filed a federal class action lawsuit against the U.S. government claiming damages for the
Guatemala experiments.[17] The case failed when a judge determined that the U.S. government could not be held liable for
actions outside the U.S.[18]

In April 2015, 774 plaintiffs launched a lawsuit against Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation in the
state court of Maryland seeking $1 billion for damages.[19]

See also
Human experimentation in the United States
Tuskegee syphilis experiment
Medical ethics
Porton Down
Japanese human experimentations
Unit 731
Nazi human experimentation
Nuremberg Code
Guatemala – United States relations

References
1. "Fact Sheet on the 1946-1948 U.S. Public Health Service Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) Inoculation Study" (ht
tps://www.hhs.gov/1946inoculationstudy/factsheet.html). United States Department of Health and Human Services.
nd. Retrieved 2013-04-15.
2. "Guatemalans 'died' in 1940s US syphilis study" (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-14712089). BBC
News. 29 August 2011. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
3. Chris McGreal (1 October 2010). "US says sorry for "outrageous and abhorrent" Guatemalan syphilis tests" (https://w
ww.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/01/us-apology-guatemala-syphilis-tests). The Guardian. Retrieved 2 October
2010. "Conducted between 1946 and 1948, the experiments were led by John Cutler, a US health service physician
who would later be part of the notorious Tuskegee syphilis study in Alabama in the 1960s."
4. Ethically Impossible: STD Research in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948 (http://bioethics.gov/sites/default/files/Ethically%
20Impossible%20%28with%20linked%20historical%20documents%29%202.7.13.pdf), Presidential Commission for
the Study of Bioethical Issues, published 2011-09-13, accessed 2015-10-23
5. "Wellesley professor unearths a horror: Syphilis experiments in Guatemala" (http://www.boston.com/news/local/mass
achusetts/articles/2010/10/02/wellesley_professor_unearths_a_horror_syphilis_experiments_in_guatemala/). Boston
Globe. 1 October 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
6. "Exposed: US Doctors Secretly Infected Hundreds of Guatemalans with Syphilis in the 1940s" (http://www.democracy
now.org/2010/10/5/exposed_us_doctors_secretly_infected_hundreds). Democracy Now!. 5 October 2010. Retrieved
12 July 2011.
7. "Findings from a CDC Report on the 1946-1948 U.S. Public Health Service Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD)
Inoculation Study" (https://www.hhs.gov/1946inoculationstudy/findings.html), U.S. Department of Health & Human
Services, 30 September 2010
8. Donald G. McNeil, Jr. (1 October 2010). "U.S. Apologizes for Syphilis Tests in Guatemala" (https://www.nytimes.com/
2010/10/02/health/research/02infect.html). The New York Times. Retrieved 2 October 2010.

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9. Hensley, Scott (1 October 2010). "U.S. Apologizes For Syphilis Experiments In Guatemala" (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20141110013859/http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2010/10/01/130266301/u-s-apologizes-for-medical-research-that
-infected-guatemalans-with-syphilis). National Public Radio. Archived from the original (https://www.npr.org/blogs/heal
th/2010/10/01/130266301/u-s-apologizes-for-medical-research-that-infected-guatemalans-with-syphilis) on 10
November 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
10. "U.S. apologizes for newly revealed syphilis experiments done in Guatemala" (https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-d
yn/content/article/2010/10/01/AR2010100104457.html). Washington Post. 1 October 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.
"The United States issued an unusual apology Friday to Guatemala for conducting experiments in the 1940s in which
doctors infected soldiers, prisoners and mental patients with syphilis and other sexually transmitted diseases."
11. https://www.icrc.org/eng/assets/files/other/irrc_851_weeramantry.pdf
12. "Joint Statement by Secretaries Clinton and Sebelius on a 1946-1948 Study" (https://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010p
res/10/20101001a.html), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, October 1, 2010
13. "US medical tests in Guatemala 'crime against humanity' " (https://web.archive.org/web/20160102060840/http://www.
bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11457552). BBC News. 1 October 2010. Archived from the original (https://www.bb
c.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11457552) on 2 January 2016. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
14. Nate, Jones. "Decades Later, NARA Posts Documents on Guatemalan Syphilis Experiments" (http://nsarchive.wordpr
ess.com/2011/04/25/nara-posts-dr-cutlers-papers-on-medical-experiments-in-guatemala/). NSA Archive. The George
Washington University. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
15. Ethically Impossible: STD Research in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948 (http://bioethics.gov/cms/sites/default/files/Ethic
ally-Impossible_PCSBI.pdf), Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, published 2011-09-13,
accessed 2012-08-29
16. McNeil, Donald G. Jr. (September 14, 2011). "Lapses by American Leaders Seen in Syphilis Tests" (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20150929061023/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/health/14syphilis.html). New York Times. Archived
from the original (https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/health/14syphilis.html) on 29 September 2015.
17. Kakar, Aman (15 March 2011). "Guatemalans file class action suit over US medical experiments" (https://web.archive.
org/web/20150106212446/http://jurist.org/paperchase/2011/03/guatemalans-file-class-action-suit-over-us-medical-exp
eriments.php). JURIST. Archived from the original (http://jurist.org/paperchase/2011/03/guatemalans-file-class-action-
suit-over-us-medical-experiments.php) on 6 January 2015.
18. Mariani, Mike (28 May 2015). "The Guatemala Experiments" (https://psmag.com/news/the-guatemala-experiments).
Pacific Standard. The Miller-McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy. Retrieved 7 January 2015.
19. Laughland, Oliver (3 April 2015). "Guatemalans deliberately infected with STDs sue Johns Hopkins University for
$1bn" (https://web.archive.org/web/20150412134055/http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/02/johns-hopkin
s-lawsuit-deliberate-std-infections-Guatemala). The Guardian. Archived from the original (https://www.theguardian.co
m/us-news/2015/apr/02/johns-hopkins-lawsuit-deliberate-std-infections-guatemala) on 12 April 2015.

External links
"Normal Exposure" and Inoculation Syphilis: A PHS "Tuskegee" Doctor in Guatemala, 1946-48 (http://www.wellesley.
edu/WomenSt/Reverby%20Normal%20Exposure.pdf)
NBC Nightly News segment on the experiments, from October 1, 2010 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwTwefKj
h1s)
Records held at the National Archives at Atlanta (https://www.archives.gov/research/health/cdc-cutler-records/)
Decades Later, NARA Posts Documents on Guatemalan Syphilis Experiments (http://nsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/
04/25/nara-posts-dr-cutlers-papers-on-medical-experiments-in-guatemala), NSA Archive

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