You may recall that a while back there was the discovery of some really bad medical science being conducted in Guatemala where people had been infected with syphilis and other STDs in a effort to see how it spreads and whether it could be treated. This research had been conducted by U.S. public health researchers and, upon learning about the research, President Obama formed a commission that was to (a) collect detailed information about what had happened and (b) whether the research safeguards in place now would prevent such research from being conducted now or in the future. Here is a news article that appeared in Science when the Guatemala study was made public: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2010/10/us-officials-apologize-for-appalling.html
Well, the commission has finished it's work and has released it's report which is now being picked up by the popular media. Here's one example of the popular media's presentation of the report: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/30/guatemala-experiments The journal "Science" has a short article about the report: http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2011/08/panel-blasts-ethics-science-of.html?ref=ra Here is the website for the Commission: http://www.bioethics.gov/cms/node/282 Here is a link to the commission's report in PDF format: http://www.bioethics.gov/cms/sites/default/files/IRP-Proceedings%20and%20Recommendations_0.pdf One of the novel recommendations of the commission is that a plan should be put into place to compensate the research participants for what they had experienced in the bad/unethical science. One popular media article on this point is available here: http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/Ethics/28283 It should be noted that the person who found out about the Guatemala study was a historian at Wellesley College, Susan Reverby, who was doing research on the Tuskegee syphilis study. Here is a popular media article on the connection; http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_754075.html?_s_icmp=NetworkHeadlines Reverby's journal article on her discovery is available in a PDF here: http://www.wellesley.edu/WomenSt/Reverby%20Normal%20Exposure.pdf I suspect that students might be familiar with this and may ask questions in research methods and other courses. Some of the "research", however, is pretty gross. -Mike Palij New York University [email protected] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=12329 or send a blank email to leave-12329-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
