Sorry for the syphilis: STD study gone horribly wrong.

• Author: Balko, Radley
• Position: Citings - Brief article

IN SEPTEMBER, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius issued a joint statement apologizing to the people of Guatemala. The mea culpa addressed the U.S. government's role in a program that intentionally infected as many as 1,500 Guatemalans with syphilis, chancroid, or gonorrhea from 1946 to 1948.

According to new paper by Susan Reverby, a professor of women's studies at Wellesley College, government researchers deliberately infected prostitutes with one of the diseases, then allowed them to have sex with prisoners, soldiers, and mental patients. Later the researchers transmitted the diseases with injections into the skin and urethra, and by exposing the subjects' genitals to infected tissue. The study--spearheaded by the U.S. government with cooperation from the Guatemalan authorities...