Guatemalans sue U.S. over syphilis experiments in the 40's‎

Guatemalans sue U.S. over syphilis experiments in the 40's‎

2011-03-17 04:31:53 GMT+7 (ICT)

WASHINGTON (BNO NEWS) -- A group of Guatemalans who were infected with syphilis during U.S. experiments conducted in the 1940s have filed a lawsuit against U.S. health officials.

According to reports from CNN, the class action lawsuit alleges that the U.S. government violated a number of national and international laws when it carried out the experiments between 1946 and 1948 on 700 Guatemalans. The American doctors conducted experiments on Guatemalan prison inmates, children at an orphanage, and people at a mental health institution.

Lawyers of the victims said the United States intentionally infected the Guatemalans in an effort to study the effects of the disease. They added that none of the infected individuals were informed or gave consent.

The lawsuit compares the project to the 40-year Tuskegee syphilis experiment in Alabama, in which doctors observed how the disease progressed in about 400 poor African-Americans who already had syphilis. The men were never told they had the disease and were never treated for it.

"This decision to move to Guatemala was part of a deliberate plan to continue the Tuskegee testing offshore, where it would not be subject to the same level of oversight as in the United States," the lawsuit says, as cited by CNN.

The complaint lists only seven plaintiffs, who are either the direct victims of the testing or their legal heirs. One lawyer for the Guatemalans, Piper Hendricks, said last week that she hoped an agreement would be reached that would avoid litigation and a trial.

The United States has apologized for the experiments, but did not reach a settlement with the plaintiffs.

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