Sometimes I hate the U.S.- Article 11
23:40 Aug 31 2011
Times Read: 449
ATLANTA (AP) —
A presidential panel on Monday disclosed shocking new details of U.S. medical experiments done in Guatemala in the 1940s, including a decision to re-infect a dying woman in a syphilis study.
The Guatemala experiments are already considered one of the darker episodes of medical research in U.S. history, but panel members say the new information indicates that the researchers were unusually unethical, even when placed into the historical context of a different era.
"The researchers put their own medical advancement first and human decency a far second," said Anita Allen, a member of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.
From 1946-48, the U.S. Public Health Service and the Pan American Sanitary Bureau worked with several Guatemalan government agencies to do medical research — paid for by the U.S. government — that involved deliberately exposing people to sexually transmitted diseases.
The researchers apparently were trying to see if penicillin, then relatively new, could prevent infections in the 1,300 people exposed to syphilis, gonorrhea or chancroid. Those infected included soldiers, prostitutes, prisoners and mental patients with syphilis.
The commission revealed Monday that only about 700 of those infected received some sort of treatment. Also, 83 people died, although it's not clear if the deaths were directly due to the experiments.
The research came up with no useful medical information, according to some experts. It was hidden for decades but came to light last year, after a Wellesley College medical historian discovered records among the papers of Dr. John Cutler, who led the experiments.
President Barack Obama called Guatemala's president, Alvaro Colom, to apologize. He also ordered his bioethics commission to review the Guatemala experiments. That work is nearly done. Though the final report is not due until next month, commission members discussed some of the findings at a meeting Monday in Washington.
They revealed that some of the experiments were more shocking than was previously known.
For example, seven women with epilepsy, who were housed at Guatemala's Asilo de Alienados (Home for the Insane), were injected with syphilis below the back of the skull, a risky procedure. The researchers thought the new infection might somehow help cure epilepsy. The women each got bacterial meningitis, probably as a result of the unsterile injections, but were treated.
Perhaps the most disturbing details involved a female syphilis patient with an undisclosed terminal illness. The researchers, curious to see the impact of an additional infection, infected her with gonorrhea in her eyes and elsewhere. Six months later she died.
Dr. Amy Gutmann, head of the commission, described the case as "chillingly egregious."
During that time, other researchers were also using people as human guinea pigs, in some cases infecting them with illnesses. Studies weren't as regulated then, and the planning-on-the-fly feel of Cutler's work was not unique, some experts have noted.
But panel members concluded that the Guatemala research was bad even by the standards of the time. They compared the work to a 1943 experiment by Cutler and others in which prison inmates were infected with gonorrhea in Terre Haute, Ind. The inmates were volunteers who were told what was involved in the study and gave their consent. The Guatemalan participants — or many of them — received no such explanations and did not give informed consent, the commission said.
The commission is working on a second report examining federally funded international studies to make sure current research is being done ethically. That report is expected at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the Guatemalan government has vowed to do its own investigation into the Cutler study. A spokesman for Vice President Rafael Espada said the report should be done by November.
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Associated Press writer Sonia Perez in Guatemala City contributed to this report.
Crreeeepppyy
04:59 Aug 12 2011
Times Read: 565
Ok so tonight has been uber creepy. It started off with this weirdo calling my phone. They keep calling and have sent a couple of texts. I didnt answer, but instead simply texted back, Who is this? Of course only to receive no response. Then out of the blue my boss calls from NY. It was a basic conversation...but then we get into thigs about Alaska...Which such civility isnt common with him, he normally states his business and thats it. Then what really freaked me out was that my office and the hospital was hit with a rolling brown out. This is super creepy to me because I am the only person in this entire building. I'm not scared of the dark, but I will say that I am scared of being in the dark, in this building. Then I keep getting a call from someone with a number that is withheld. Oh, and I am at work, which means that I cant see images that are on profiles and such, but suddenly after the brown outs I can. Weird.
Is it just me or could it be the full moon, or the solar flares going on? I dont know, but i'll tell you one thing. I will be happy to get home and get this night over with. *shudders* I havent been through anything so akward in a long time. Allow me to state that it probably wouldnt have that much of an impact on me if I wasnt already a person that's overly paranoid about everything. I hate to admit it, but I am paranoid, and that many odd occurances in a night is a bad sign. Bad, bad luck. bad.
On another note, I am slowly creeping my way to level 80. Maybe sometime in the next three years or so I'll drag myself to sire. I dont know I just dont see the rush that everyone else has to get there. Frankly the status is null to me. I prefer to be here to learn and talk and connect with the other wonderful people here. So, sire can wait.
I'm a little concerned about a friend of mine. I havent heard from him in a few days which is a teensy bit odd. Although it could just be that I was getting on his nerves and he simply hasnt felt the need to message me anything. I do hope that all is well with him, I'd hate to find out that something had happened.
Anyway my dears, I am off for the night, hopefully with nothing else weird happening. *crosses fingers* Adieu
Why a child? Why?02:16 Aug 11 2011
Times Read: 578
DALLAS (Associated Press) -- Authorities in Texas have charged a Dallas woman with forcing her 6-year-old daughter to repeatedly videotape her having group sex.
According to police records, the 24-year-old woman is charged with indecency with a child by exposure, a third-degree felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The woman, who was arrested Saturday, was in jail Tuesday on a $50,000 bond.
The Associated Press does not generally identify those whom authorities believe to be the victims of sexually assault, and is not naming the woman because it might lead to the identification of her daughter.
The Dallas Morning News reported Tuesday the police went to the woman's apartment acting on a tip. The mother has since told police her daughter used a cellphone to videotape three separate incidents involving six men, the newspaper reported.
A public defender listed in court documents as the woman's court-appointed attorney did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Marissa Gonzales, a spokeswoman for the state's Child Protective Services agency, said the 6-year-old was immediately placed in foster care after her mother's arrest.
"Physically, she's fine," Gonzales said. "But in any situation like this, where a child could need therapy, we will certainly work with (the child)."
The agency has launched its own investigation to determine whether the girl was the subject of abuse, she said.
A civil court hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 16 to determine whether there are any family members who are appropriate to provide the child with care, Gonzales said.
Gonzales said CPS investigated the mother shortly after the child was born to determine whether the infant had been neglected. That case was closed with a finding that there was insufficient evidence to determine abuse or neglect, she said.
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