The US pharmaceutical giant Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Johns Hopkins University and the Rockefeller Foundation have to answer for human trials in Guatemala in the 40s and 50s. The US federal judge Theodore Chuang ruled that by rejecting the defense’s demand for discontinuation of the procedure.
Hundreds of people in the Central American country were deliberately infected with the venereal disease syphilis. The aim of these human experiments was to find out if penicillin is effective against sexually transmitted diseases.
Victims and relatives filed a lawsuit
In 2015, 774 victims and victims had filed a lawsuit. They assure that the experiments were carried out without their knowledge or consent. According to Judge Chuang, the plaintiffs are demanding $ 1 billion in compensation.
The human experiments were uncovered in 2010 by Professor Susan Reverby of Wellesley College in the USA. She had come across notes from John Charles Cutler, a venereal disease specialist who died in 2003. Cutler had led the test series. He and his research colleagues conducted the tests in Guatemala on soldiers, the mentally ill, prostitutes and convicted criminals.
Former US President Barack Obama apologized for the experiments in 2010. His then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the experiments as „unethical“ and „reprehensible“.
