Eclectic Rant: U.S. Apologizes for Abusive Guatemala Human Medical Experiments
In an Oct. 1, statement, the U.S. government acknowledged that between 1946 and 1948, U.S. Public Health Service physicians deliberately infected at least 696 Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea without their knowledge or consent to study the effect of venereal disease. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius formally apologized for the "abhorrent" and "clearly unethical" medical experiments. And on October 2, President Barack Obama apologized to his Guatemalan counterpart and vowed that all human medical studies conducted today will be held to exacting U.S. and international legal and ethical standards. -more-