Human Experiements

The syphilis experiments in Guatemala were United States-led human experiments conducted in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948. The first experiment following the push for new developments in STD treatment and preventative measures were the Terre Haute prison experiments from 1943–1944, which were conducted and supported by many of the same individuals who would go on to participate in the Guatemalan syphilis experiments only a few years later.[4][5] The goal of this experiment was to find a more suitable STD prophylaxis, by infecting human subjects recruited from prison populations with gonorrhea. Dr. John Cutler, a young associate of Dr. Mahoney, helped conduct the experiments, and went on to lead the Guatemala Syphilis Experiment. The experiments were led by United States Public Health Service physician John Charles Cutler,[6] who had earlier participated in the similar Terre Haute prison experiments, in which volunteer prisoners were infected with gonorrhea.[4] The researchers paid prostitutes infected with syphilis to have sex with prisoners, while other subjects were infected by directly inoculating them with the bacterium.[7] Through intentional exposure to gonorrhea, syphilis, and chancroid, a total of 1,308 people were involved in the experiments. Mahoney  lead the Terre Haute Prison experiments and supervised Dr. Cutler in the Guatemala Syphilis Experiment. After stopping the Terre Haute experiments for lack of accurate infection of subjects with gonorrhea, Dr. Mahoney moved on to study the effects of penicillin on syphilis. Three days later, on August 27, Berta died.[4][10]The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention acknowledges that "the design and conduct of the studies was unethical in many respects, including deliberate exposure of subjects to known serious health threats, lack of knowledge of and consent for experimental procedures by study subjects, and the use of highly vulnerable populations."[11] A total of 83 subjects died, though the exact relationship to the experiment remains undocumented.[4][11]