Infected are more than 80 years old - Emelina Ramos

I chose to do my article on an article called "infectados tendran mas de 80 anos" or "infected are more than 80 years old." This article is focused on the inhumane study that was conducted from 1946-1948 in Guatemala by the United States government. During this study 1,610 people (who were a mixture of military prisoners, men in jail and mental ward patients) were infected with syphilis unknowingly. This was done by bringing in prostitutes (something that was not illegal in Guatemala at the time) into these institutions in order to have sex with these men. The men were not informed that the prostitutes were all infected with syphilis. The research was carried out by a man named John Cutler of the United States health care sector and was funded by the United States government. The study was done in order to test an anti-biotic that could potentially rid an individual of syphilis. The article itself is focused on the need to find the people who may still be alive in Guatemala today after a public apology was issued by the United States government. The government of Guatemala is worried that they will not be able to find the documents that held the identity of those inflicted with syphilis however it is presumed that analysts in the Association of Infectious Diseases and the College of Medicine and Infectious Diseases should come together to help find these documents. The party that was elected at the time claimed that they had been deceived into allowing this experiment to take place and investigations are now taking place to make sure this is true. Many believe that once found the families of these individuals should be recompensated by the Government of Guatemala and the United States for having violating their rights.
When one first reads this article it is hard to believe as it sounds too much like a conspiracy theory. It is interesting to note that government would choose to use some of the most marginalized individuals in Guatemalan society. It is also interesting that they would rather infect over a thousand individuals instead of doing studies on individuals already infected with the STI. What is most is interesting that a similar experiment was conducted in the 1930's where 400 syphilis infected black men were purposefully left untreated in order to study the course of the disease. Similarly these men were some of the most marginalized men in United States society (being poor, uneducated and black in the 1930's) who thought they were getting free medical care and were told that if they allowed their bodies to be autopsied after they died they would be able to receive free meals during the course of this study.
This article made me question the ethics of studies that are being conducted in developed countries. The majority of studies being conducted today are not known to the everyday individual so it is difficult for one to object to a study that may be morally wrong. An example of this is the various studies being conducted on genetically modified foods which is a very controversial topic in our present world today. It also makes me wonder how many studies involve the use of marginalized people. In the case of the Guatemalan syphilis study it can be questioned if the United States government opted for using Guatemalans because it was an impoverished country with a poor infrastrature. Hopefully our developed countries have learned from these studies which have clearly been morally wrong and have begun to adopt moral studies however further research will need to be conduct in order to see if this is true.