HEALTH - Human Dignity in Medical Research?

I have previously made some clearly accusatory statements directed at the Food and Drug Administration and Public Health Services of the U.S. and the World Health Organization which may cause many to question my accuracy and possibly even my sanity. To some, it may seem that I am deliberately encouraging fear. While it isn my intention to provoke fear, it is my goal to encourage people to be cautious about assuming that the federal and global health care systems are truly looking out for our best interest. In my opinion, nothing could be further from the truth! I came upon some information (Washington Post Oct, 2, 2010) that may help explain why I take such a strong stance.

While conducting investigations for a book, Professor Reverby of Wellesley College in Massachusetts recently discovered that the U.S. government conducted medical experiments in the 1940s in which doctors infected soldiers, prisoners and mental patients in Guatemala with sexually transmitted diseases. The experiments involved about 1,500 men and women who were unwittingly drafted into studies aimed at determining the effectiveness of penicillin in preventing sexually transmitted infections. The studies were sponsored by the Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health, the World Health Organization and the Guatemalan government. The documents show that a number of high-ranking U.S. government officials knew about the research, including the acting U.S. surgeon general.

Men in Guatemala City's Central Penitentiary were used for the study because its prisoners were allowed to have sex with prostitutes. Some of the prostitutes tested positive for syphilis; in other cases, doctors put infectious material on the cervixes of uninfected prostitutes before they had sex with prisoners. But because so few men were getting infected, the researchers then attempted irect inoculations made from syphilis bacteria poured into the men's penises and on forearms and faces that were slightly abraded . . . or in a few cases through spinal punctures. In some cases, the subjects drank syphilitic tissue mixed with distilled water.

According to an investigation by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only a portion of those who became infected received treatment!

In their joint pology to Guatemala, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius stated,

The conduct exhibited during the study does not represent the values of the United States, or our commitment to human dignity Today, the regulations that govern U.S.-funded human medical research prohibit these kinds of appalling violations. The United States is unwavering in our commitment to ensure that all human medical studies conducted today meet exacting U.S. and international legal and ethical standards.

I not convinced that the ethical standards are any higher in medical research today! Have U.S. governmental officials forgotten the 1996 testimony of Professor Shamoo of the organization Citizens for Responsible Care and Research:

"This type of research is on-going nationwide
in medical centers and VA hospitals supported by tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers money.
These experiments are high risk and are abusive,
causing not only physical and psychic harm to the most vulnerable groups
but also degrading our society system of basic human values.
Probably tens of thousands of patients are being subjected to such experiments.

Have they forgotten that their abhorrent practices have been exposed over and again prior to and since this testimony (http://www.naturalnews.com/019187.html)?

As we move closer to a global health care system, which is more interested in control and wealth than superior health and healing, these detestable events are powerful reminders to take responsibility for our own health and to seek alternatives to governmentally controlled ealthcare


Whole-Heartedly,
Bonnie


DISCLAIMER:
The author of this article does not endorse everything represented on/in suggested links, books, etc. Each of us is accountable to God to weigh everything according to His Word.