-Caveat Lector-
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Marpessa Kupendua" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: !*PA Prison sued over medical experiments
Date: Wed, 1 Nov 2000 23:13:30 -0600 (CST)
FORWARDED MESSAGE
====================
From: Graeme Bacque <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, October 20, 2000 4:10 AM
Thursday, October 19, 2000
[]
http://www.canoe.com/CNEWSLaw0010/19_prison-ap.html
Prison sued over medical studies
By MARYCLAIRE DALE-- The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Allen Hornblum's first job out of graduate school in
1971 was teaching literacy at Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison.
Inside the imposing walls, he says he was shocked to see dozens of inmates
with adhesive tape on their faces, their arms and their backs.
At first he thought there had been a knife fight, but he soon learned that
the bandages betrayed widespread medical experiments that had gone on for
23 years inside the city-run prison.
Hornblum's 1998 book, "Acres of Skin," explored the physical and
psychological effects of the testing and inspired a lawsuit filed this
week
in Philadelphia on behalf of 298 former inmates.
The lawsuit claims the testing exposed the inmates to infectious diseases,
radiation, dioxin and psychotropic drugs -- all without their informed
consent.
It names as defendants the city of Philadelphia; Dr. Albert Kligman, a
University of Pennsylvania dermatologist who conducted much of the
research
and is credited with developing the acne and anti-wrinkle treatment Retin
A; the university; and drug makers Johnson & Johnson and the Dow Chemical
Co., whose products were allegedly used on inmates.
Kligman, who is now in his 80s but keeps an office at the university, did
not return a call seeking comment Wednesday. However, in 1998 he said: "To
the best of my knowledge, the result of these experiments advanced our
knowledge of the pathogenesis of skin disease, and no long-term harm was
done to any person who voluntarily participated in the research program."
The university declined to comment on the lawsuit, and officials for the
city and Dow Chemical did not immediately return telephone calls.
Johnson & Johnson confirmed that it had tested cosmetic and skin-care
products on inmates at Holmsburg during the late 1960s and early 1970s.
But
it said none of the ingredients cited in the part of the lawsuit it had
seen were used in the company's products.
Using inmates for testing was common practice during the 1950s and 1960s,
but it is now frowned on by the university, University of Pennsylvania
spokeswoman Rebecca Harmon said.
While medical testing took place in other prisons, Holmesburg was
well-known among scientists because of Kligman's research and because of
the prison's willingness to have its inmates tested in exchange for annual
fees in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, Hornblum said.
Most of the inmates involved were black men and relatively uneducated.
"There are men who do have cancer, severe lung problems, all sorts of
maladies," Hornblum said. "I am not a doctor, so I can't confirm that
there
is a direct linkage. You need to have some serious epidemiological
studies,
but no one has ever been interested."
The inmates' attorney, Thomas Nocella, said the inmates received only a
dollar or two a day to be used as subjects for lucrative commercial
product
testing. Since they did not know what drugs they were being given, they
could not have given informed consent, even if they signed waivers, he
said.
"As human beings, they want an apology for being treated the way they were
treated back then. Secondly, they want some kind of assurance that medical
treatment will be available to them," Nocella said.
The lawsuit, filed Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, seeks $50,000 in
damages from each defendant.
The medical testing at Holmesburg began in 1951 and didn't end until 1974,
when it was banned, said Hornblum, now an adjunct professor at Temple
University. The ban was prompted by congressional hearings into allegedly
coerced medical experimentation, including Tuskegee University tests that
infected black men with syphilis
A few Holmesburg inmates sued the university and the city in 1984, and
settled for sums in the $20,000 to $40,000 range.
Holmesburg was closed in 1995.
###
Any election in which only two individuals are allowed exposure is, by
definition, a fraud. We are an occupied nation.
http://www.mediachannel.org/views/oped/neo.shtml
http://www.ddh.nl/nwd/2000/index-eng.html
http://www.angelfire.com/mi/smilinks/thirdeye.html
###
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