U.S. Responds to Unethical Guatemalan Medical Studies with $1.8 Million

In the 1940s, U.S. experiments infected Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea. The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it will spend $1 million to study new rules for protecting medical researchvolunteers as well as an additional $775,000 will go to fighting sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala.

According to The Washington Post, the funding arrived a month after a presidential commission investigating the experiments recommended that the United States develop a system to compensate anyone harmed in medical research. It also follows apologies made in 2010 to the Guatemalan victims by President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. But the announcement came one day after the Obama administration argued in a court filing that the United States is immune to lawsuits from victims of the experiments. Lawyers for Guatemalans who filed a class-action lawsuit against the United States said the immunity assertion contradicts the apologies made by Obama and his advisers.
The Associated Press reported that Guatemalan officials said last month that they have found 2,082 people were involved in the experiments, while U.S. officials put the figure at 1,308.”U.S. pledges $1.8 million in response to unethical Guatemalan medical studies.
” Washington Post. (2012) <http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/us-pledges-18-million-in-response-to-unethical-guatemalan-medical-studies/2012/01/10/gIQAGeXLpP_story.html?tid=pm_national_pop>.
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