Guatemala syphilis studies

I was searching for more information on the Tuskegee experiments and came across the Guatemala syphilis experiments in the 1940s. In Guatemala U.S. researchers infected prostitutes, soldiers, prisoners, and the mentally ill with syphilis, gonorrhea, or choncroid to test the new drug penicillin. The experiments in Guatemala were secret until a historian at Wellesley College in Massachusetts found records from Dr. John Cutler, who led experiments in Guatemala and was part of the Tuskegee experiments. The studies in Guatemala never issued the patients to consent to the experiments. “Researchers put their own medical advancement first and human decency a far second.” It is thought that 700 infected Guatemalans were treated and 83 of them had died. Today research companies are still testing out drugs on the poor. Do you think this should be acceptable? Drugs for AIDS and other trials are also being done in third world countries. Do you think we should be protecting only those in the developing world, or all human beings? Guatemala studies were very similar to those done in Tuskegee. I think it is important to shed light on the mistakes done in the past even outside of the U.S. to improve our medical institutions and progress.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504763_162-20099804-10391704.html

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/guatemala-syphilis-experiments-shock-us-drug-trials-exploit/story?id=14414902

-emothersell