In 1931, Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, injected Puerto Ricans with cancer cells. He later helped start the U.S. Army Biological Warfare facility, where he conducted radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients.
In 1932, the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study began. Nearly 400 African American men with syphilis were never told of their diagnosis; were denied treatment, even after a cure was discovered; and were used as human guinea pigs. The experiments continued until the early 1970s, resulting in all of the subjects dying from syphilis.
In 1940, 400 prisoners in Chicago were infected with malaria in order to study the effects of experimental drugs in combating the disease.
Not including the actions of Nazi doctors during the Holocaust, America has been at the forefront of experimentation on humans. America even experimented on military personnel during the first Gulf War, so it was not surprising that just this week, Americans learned that from 1946–1948, hundreds of Guatemalans were intentionally infected with gonorrhea and syphilis — without their knowledge or consent — by U.S. government medical researchers as part of a study. About one-third of the 696 infected subjects, who included institutionalized mental patients, never received treatment.
Not until Oct. 1, 2010, did the U.S. government formally issue an apology, which was proffered by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. Former President Bill Clinton apologized for the Tuskegee experiments in May of 1997.
Novelist James T. Patterson, author of Bad Blood, wrote about America’s long and sordid history of experimentation on unwitting human subjects, which goes back to the beginning of 20th century. In Bad Blood, Patterson outlines how studies like the Tuskegee experiment, which was conducted from 1932 to 1972, were not aberrations, but rather a reflection of the oppression wielded by those in power.
It is not an anomaly that these studies were conducted on African Americans and people from perceived lesser nations. In fact, it is a common historical practice for Europeans to consider non-Europeans as less than human. Thus, it would not be a surprise if more such experiments come to the forefront. It’s even possible that medical experiments might still be going on today, especially with vulnerable populations as the subjects. –torrance stephens, ph.d.
