Maria Constance Scheperle
Extract
As is now known, from 1946–48, the Venereal Disease Research Laboratory of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (PASB), and the Guatemalan government spearheaded a study4 that intentionally infected and tested Guatemalan prisoners, asylum inmates, soldiers, and orphaned children.5 The research team, led by Dr. John C. Cutler, exposed Guatemalans to syphilis “through the use of infectious prostitutes or directly through [an] inoculum made from tissue of human and animal syphilitic gummas and chancres,”6 and then treated the Guatemalans with penicillin.7 Although the researchers acknowledged they could not use such methods in the United States,8 they experimented in secrecy and did not seek consent from human subjects.9 . . .
The Guatemala study was horrendous, and the legal standards and guidelines of its day failed to protect Guatemalans who were infected with syphilis. Similar studies are being conducted by U.S. researchers in developing nations around the world, whether through grants from the U.S. government or by private U.S. companies. These problems must be remedied, and the Research Participants Protection Modernization Act of 2011 provides the impetus for the U.S. to do so. As Amy Gutmann, Chair of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues stated, “a civilization can be judged by the way that it treats its most vulnerable individuals. There is no position of vulnerability that is greater than to be the subject of a medical experiment.”.
Scheperle MC. The Guatemala STD Inoculation Study as the Incentive to Change Modern Informed Consent Standards. Washington Lee J Civil Rights Soc Just. 2012 Mar;18(2):425-471.