President Obama Wants Review of Human Medical Experiments

[n2doc]

Submitted by Jeremy Hsu
posted: 29 November 2010 10:26 am ET


A recent U.S. apology for its past medical research misdeeds was apparently not enough for President Obama. Last week, the POTUS ordered his bioethics commission to begin investigating whether current U.S. protections for human research subjects are enough to prevent harm from unethical treatment in the U.S. or abroad.

The move was prompted by the discovery of U.S. government experiments on Guatemalans that took place more than 60 years ago. During a 1946-48 study, the U.S. Public Health Service intentionally infected hundreds of people with gonorrhea and syphilis, and encouraged them to try and pass the infection on. However, U.S. researchers did treat Guatemalans who ended up getting infected.

Researchers involved in the Guatemala research later helped conduct the infamous Tuskegee study in Alabama that lasted until 1972. In the second case, they withheld treatment from African American men who already had syphilis, and instead watched the disease progress in their bodies.

Now the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues has been charged with reviewing human subjects protection in the U.S. and abroad to make sure that such incidents won't repeat themselves. President Obama also wants his commission to thoroughly investigate what happened during the Guatemala study.

more

http://www.livescience.com/health/etc/101129-president-obama-wants-bioethics-review-human-medical-experiments.html

[Divernan]

1. Hope he includes the back scatter scanners.

[T Wolf]

2. On THIS, he is willing to look back and investigate. But not on torture, lying the nation into

wars, political fraud, etc., etc., etc., etc.......

As someone involved in medical research on humans, I can testify to the million hoops we have to jump through now. This could not happen these days.

Point out a recent problem, if you can, and look into it. But going after a sixty-year-old study is a safe way to appear concerned. No one to hold accountable except dead researchers. Again, just bullshit from an administration that DOES NOTHING to rock the boat of present-day offenders and crimes.