"Ethically Impossible" STD Research in Guatemala
May 11, 2014 3:33 PM Subscribe
Kayte Spector-Bagdady gives a lecture at the Rock Ethics Institute summarizing a report from the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues on the 1946-1948 U.S.-Guatemala STD Experiments. [Previously] [Previouslier]
On a less serious note, I desperately want to believe that The Rock really has an Ethics Institute.
posted by Ouverture at 4:41 PM on May 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Ouverture at 4:41 PM on May 11, 2014 [2 favorites]
something that lives on today, albeit in a slightly different form.
As profoundly ethically troubling as drug trials in desperately poor nations where the concept of "informed consent" gets very, very blurry, there still seems to me a pretty bright line between that and deliberately infecting people with STDs without their knowledge or consent. I mean, in no case is the tested medication intended to inflict harm (even if harms are foreseeable) and there is at least the attempt to gain informed consent. That's not to dismiss the gravity of the practices your link describes, it's just to say that as bad as that is, what's described in the FPP is some orders of magnitude more depraved.
posted by yoink at 4:46 PM on May 11, 2014 [9 favorites]
As profoundly ethically troubling as drug trials in desperately poor nations where the concept of "informed consent" gets very, very blurry, there still seems to me a pretty bright line between that and deliberately infecting people with STDs without their knowledge or consent. I mean, in no case is the tested medication intended to inflict harm (even if harms are foreseeable) and there is at least the attempt to gain informed consent. That's not to dismiss the gravity of the practices your link describes, it's just to say that as bad as that is, what's described in the FPP is some orders of magnitude more depraved.
posted by yoink at 4:46 PM on May 11, 2014 [9 favorites]
Yes, that's absolutely true. Things aren't as existentially terrible as they used to be.
posted by Ouverture at 6:11 PM on May 11, 2014
posted by Ouverture at 6:11 PM on May 11, 2014
Thanks for posting this. I look forward - albeit grimly - to reading the report.
posted by gingerest at 6:37 PM on May 11, 2014
posted by gingerest at 6:37 PM on May 11, 2014
"Ethically impossible" sounds like a slightly more polite way to say "brazenly evil."
posted by schmod at 9:07 PM on May 11, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by schmod at 9:07 PM on May 11, 2014 [5 favorites]
"Ethically impossible" sounds like a slightly more polite way to say "brazenly evil."
I am now imaging the "Impossible Ethics" team, where spindoctors clandestinely enter "friendly" states with dubious human rights records and try to put a happy face on a scandal. For some reason, this always involves Tom Cruise typing on a Mac while suspended from the ceiling.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:05 AM on May 12, 2014
I am now imaging the "Impossible Ethics" team, where spindoctors clandestinely enter "friendly" states with dubious human rights records and try to put a happy face on a scandal. For some reason, this always involves Tom Cruise typing on a Mac while suspended from the ceiling.
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:05 AM on May 12, 2014
Of course, there is a domestic branch as well....
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:06 AM on May 12, 2014
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:06 AM on May 12, 2014
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Ugh. What worries me is that this, just like entrenched racism in America, may be viewed as something that dwells in the past as opposed to something that lives on today, albeit in a slightly different form.
When colonialism and neoliberalism hold hands and press down upon already suffering peoples, "voluntary" ain't an adjective.
posted by Ouverture at 4:36 PM on May 11, 2014