U.S. Government Used Prostitution to Spread STDs in Guatemala

The U.S. government has admitted they conducted medical experiments by infecting Guatemalans with STDs in the 1940s. As part of the experiments, they intentionally infected women in prostitution with syphilis and instructed them to have sex with prisoners to track the spread and treatment of the disease. It's an example of the abuse and exploitation of women in the commercial sex industry that dates back far before the anti-trafficking movement.

The experiments were originally conducted in Guatemala City's Central Penitentiary, because at the time men imprisoned there were permitted to have sex with women in prostitution. Some of these women were already infected with syphilis. For those who weren't, doctors intentionally applied infected material to their cervixes before sending them to have sex with the incarcerated men. The U.S. government used similar techniques to study the spread of gonorrhea among these same populations. It's still unclear how many of the study's "participants" were treated for the diseases or what those treatments consisted of. However, untreated gonorrhea can cause infertility and untreated syphilis can cause blindness, dementia, and death.

The Guatemala experiments were led by Dr. John Cutter, the same doctor responsible for the infamous Tuskegee experiments, which intentionally infected hundreds of African American men with syphilis and left them untreated to study the advanced stages of the disease. The men participating in the study were never told they had syphilis and never asked if they were willing to participate in a study which left their disease untreated.It's unclear as to whether or not the participants in the Guatemala study had the same information withheld or if the women in prostitution were consenting. However, it's doubtful that women who were contracted to service incarcerated men in an inner-city Guatemalan prison in the 1940s were all there of their own fruition. And it's certainly highly unlikely that they consented to being infected with syphilis and sent to infect others with the disease. Dr. Cutter and his team used prostitution, and the women who by force or choice were involved in it, to spread STDs and study their affects. The experiment was unequivocally a gross violation of the rights of everyone involved. And the exploitation of prostitution as a tool to spread STDs is just one more layer of abuse.

So far, the U.S. government has issued an apology to everyone who was involved in the experiment. But that seems to be far too little, far too late. The U.S. government funded a medical study which victimized over 1500 people in Guatemala. They owe any survivors or their families more than just an apology. They owe some form of compensation to the victims of the study and/or their families. However, no one seems to know what happened to the participants. The Guatemalan government is launching an investigation to determine who, if anyone, might still be alive who participated in the experiment. But if those diseases were left untreated, that search might not turn up anyone at all.

Photo credit: librex