About time. October 1, 2010 Jill Sixty-four years later, the United States apologizes for infecting Guatemalan prisoners with syphilis. It’s certainly too little too late, but at least it’s finally being acknowledged.
There are so many cases of these kinds of abuse, both historically, and, I suspect, currently. I hope someday they will be all discovered and apologies–and more–will be granted to those who have suffered so much. But this is the first step in the right direction.
I heard about this on NPR this afternoon–it’s pretty staggering. The researcher who was found the documents tried to claim that the lead doctor wasn’t a “monster.” My response was along the lines of O RLY?
perhaps i’m biased as a rightwinger, but it appears that atrocities occurring under fdr/truman rarely get the administration’s signature attached. in other words, they become american atrocities full stop. in contrast, iran-contra or the financing of death squads in guatemala are not only American affairs, but Reagan admin ones. the bay of pigs was an American invasion, but also a Kennedy one. Nixon-Cambodia, you get the picture. in contrast, the japanese internemnt rarely gets fdrs name attached in my experience. his role as a collabortor with and benficiary of the jim crow regime hasn’t stuck either, though in fairness other Dem’s of the era– jfk and Stevenson in particualr and even LBJ– have generally escaped being labeled as such too. tuskegee, the predecessor of todays reported atrocity, isn’t automatically referred to as something begun by fdr’s admin, while lbj in contrast owns vietnam. the current news reports i’ve read of this atrocity follow in a similar path. No presidential name attached. my guess is he and Truman by extension were the most transformative presidents of the post-civil war era, surpassing even Reagan. the legacy the new deal and a foreign policy based on liberal interventionism, first via WWII and then the cold war doctrines under Truman, are so defining of what it means to be an american liberal (along with civil rights, but that came much later) that some sweeping under the rug must occur to preserve the legacy.
Cactus Wren–the doctor who led the trials was also involved in the Tuskegee incident. I can only conclude that he didn’t have much respect for individual autonomy, specifically the autonomy of non-whites.
Step in the right direction my ass :/ all they’ve did is fessed up and said an apology (because I’m sure all the politicians have been losing sleep over this matter) they haven’t lost anything by it. People were already aware that the U.S government has done disgusting experiments on it’s own people and people in other countries. I want to see them put their money where their mouth is and make monetary amends, and anything else that may be appropriate. I don’t buy for one fucking second that they can’t find the experimentees or their surviving relatives.
“…fdrs name attached in my experience.his role as a collabortor with and benficiary of the jim crow regime hasn’t stuck either,” FDR was busy with other matters at the time, and people at the time labeled him with those: the country and the economy had collapsed, and then two major world powers teamed up to subjugate the rest of us. So yes, he benefited from Jim Crow, but you somehow still found his picture in the homes of black people, because they knew he had kept them from starving along with half of the country. ” though in fairness other Dem’s of the era– jfk and Stevenson in particualr…” Kennedy has an uneraned reputation as progressive. He was a deal-maker, but then again just the fact of his presidency was progress. Al Smith’s failed campaign was not that far in thr past. hindsight is not always 20-20 – moodern-day people are often quite unaware of the attitudes towards Catholicism as recently as the 50’s. They still persist. “and even LBJ– have generally escaped being labeled as such too. ” He gets a pass because of his lifetime devoted to dismantling Jim Crow. His Voting Rights Act, and it was his, was a major strategic scarficie for the Democrats, and mre than anything broke Jim Crow and made sure it would stay dead. However your general point is valid. Demcrats get a pass on civil rights, the way Republicans get a pass on “national security” and fiscal responsibility. That’s pretty ignorant, on b oth counts.
In regards to who they are experimenting on NOW, it is right out in the open: Poor people who volunteer to be experimented on for pay. No shame there, after all, it’s their OWN fault if they are poor! Here in Austin Texas I believe there are several different companies who will pay you to be experimented on, otherwise known as “compensated clinical trials.”
It’s worth noting that as soon as this became known, the Obama administration didn’t hesitate to issue an apology. It’s not like people knew about this for 64 years and did nothing. This information *just* came to light. It doesn’t excuse the original researcher or his funders. It would just be a shame if people who really do condemn this are being treated like they were sitting on this knowledge and did nothing. The Obama administration, Secretary Clinton, and Secretary Sebelius do care, and they acted immediately upon finding this out.
KMTBerry: In regards to who they are experimenting on NOW, it is right out in the open: Poor people who volunteer to be experimented on for pay. No shame there, after all, it’s their OWN fault if they are poor! Here in Austin Texas I believe there are several different companies who will pay you to be experimented on, otherwise known as “compensated clinical trials.” So who should they be allowed to experiment on? Only upper-middle-class people looking for some spending money? Only non-human sentient apes? Poor people deciding to get several thousands of dollars for clinical research are not the same as prisoners forcibly infected with a disease or men who are kept ignorant of a cure so we can watch how it affects them — and I’ve been a patient in several trials.