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Guatemalans Seek US Compensation for Syphilis Infections
March 10, 2011 - Attorneys in Washington and Guatemala are seeking legal compensation for victims of experiments by U.S. doctors in Guatemala in the 1940s that involved the deliberate infection of around 700 people with syphilis. U.S. officials have already denounced the experiments and apologized to the victims, but they have not yet established a way to compensate the victims and their families.
Guatemalans Seek US Compensation for Syphilis Infections
March 10, 2011 - Attorneys in Washington and Guatemala are seeking legal compensation for victims of experiments by U.S. doctors in Guatemala in the 1940s that involved the deliberate infection of around 700 people with syphilis. U.S. officials have already denounced the experiments and apologized to the victims, but they have not yet established a way to compensate the victims and their families.
A Washington, D.C. law firm sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder this week asking that some system be established to handle claims for people deliberately infected with syphilis in Guatemala more than half a century ago. One of the attorneys involved in preparing the case, Piper Hendricks, says there is a deadline for Holder to respond. Right now, what we have done is send a letter to Attorney General Holder asking for a response from the U.S. government," said Hendricks. "If there is no response by Friday we will be filing the complaint on Monday.
Last October, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius issued a public apology for the syphilis experiments carried out in Guatemala under the U.S. National Institutes of Health from 1946 to 1948, calling the actions by U.S. doctors reprehensible. President Barack Obama also apologized to Guatemala for what had happened and appointed a bioethics panel to investigate international medical studies.
But the United States has not taken steps to compensate the people who were deliberately infected with the debilitating disease. Piper Hendricks says failure of the Obama administration to act before the deadline Friday will result in a legal battle that could be costly and difficult for both the government and the plaintiffs. This is a very easy case," said Hendricks. "There has already been an acknowledgement of the wrong that took place. We know that the U.S. government was involved. We do not know all the parameters, we do not know all of the impacts, but the main wrong has already been acknowledged.
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