An experiment gone horribly awry
In the late 1940s, U.S. researchers used Guatemalan prisoners, mental patients, and soldiers as laboratory animals, infecting them with syphilis without their knowledge in order to test new treatments for the disease. The experiments, which came to an end with the development elsewhere of penicillin as a treatment, remained secret until several years ago, when a Wellesley College researcher stumbled upon them while looking into similar cases involving poor African-American men in Tuskegee, Ala. When news of the experiments came to light in 2010, it sparked an international uproar, claiming headlines and prompting apologies from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. The news also led to a phone call from President Barack Obama to Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom, who called the experiments “a crime against humanity.” On Tuesday, a Harvard Law School panel discussed the case, highlighting options for reparations and warning against thinking...