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The Guatemalan Case, Guatemalans Vs Johns Hopkins University

Decent Essays

The Guatemalan Case In the lawsuit “Guatemalans vs Johns Hopkins University” over 800 Guatemalans were deliberately infected with sexually transmitted diseases and then treated with penicillin in an experiment to see if this antibiotic would work in treating these diseases. Researchers from John Hopkins School of Medicine infected kids in an orphanage, prisoners and mental health patients without their knowledge with syphilis and gonorrhea. These experiments happened from 1945 to 1656 but were not discovered until 2010. In the article it talks about how the experiment was kept a secret and did not publish any findings on whether the penicillin worked or not, probably because it was unsuccessful. It also talked about how the Guatemalans that were infected and then treat were not given follow up care nor information on what they were infected with. Many of the victims of these experiments went on living there lives with no idea what the institution had done to them. They lived with the effects of these diseases and passed these things on to sexual partners and to their children. Although about 1,500 people were infected during the experiment many have passed away. In the article, it goes on to talk about a little girl who lived in an orphanage and at nine years old she was called to the infirmary where several doctors including one Guatemalan doctor, she was infected with syphilis. Many of the Guatemalans lived their lives without knowing the truth. These acts were similar

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