January 13, 2012
Previously published on January 9, 2012
On January 9, 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice claimed immunity for the United States in a case brought on behalf of thousands of Guatemalan victims of non-consensual human medical experimentation by U.S. researchers. The case, which is proceeding in the District Court for the District of Columbia, seeks a remedy for the deplorable acts committed by U.S. authorities beginning in the late 1940s, including intentionally infecting vulnerable populations with venereal diseases.
In its motions filed today, the DOJ acknowledged that “[t]his lawsuit arises out of a deeply troubling chapter in our nation’s history,” then asserted immunity under the Federal Tort Claims Act, stating that no exception exists for the harms at issue because they were suffered in a foreign country.
This assertion of immunity contradicts the public apologies issued by President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, and Secretary of Health & Human Services Sebelius in October 2010, when the experiments were first uncovered. Failure to take responsibility for these human rights abuses also violates the international prohibition against non-consensual human medical experimentation, which nations around the world, including the United States, explicitly renounced during the Nuremberg trials following World War II. In 2009, the Second Circuit reaffirmed that non-consensual human medical experimentation is an internationally-recognized human rights violation. See Abdullahi v. Pfizer, 562 F.3d 163 (2d Cir. 2009).
In a September 2011 report based on its review of contemporary records of what it called the “reprehensible exploitation of our fellow human beings,” the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues confirmed that the members of the U.S. medical team involved knew that they were violating the rights of vulnerable populations in Guatemala.
Terrence Collingsworth, partner at Conrad & Scherer, LLP, states: “This response by our own government is extremely disappointing. Naturally, we will continue to vigorously fight for the rights of the Guatemalans wronged in this matter to obtain a remedy for the harms done by U.S. officials. But we remain open to the United States deciding to do the right thing, consistent with long-established human rights law and basic morality.”
Piper Hendricks, associate at Conrad & Scherer, LLP, adds: “The American public and the international community are watching this case closely. We hope that the Obama administration will correct this error in judgment and take the opportunity to strengthen its legacy by upholding its stated commitment to human rights principles.”
Despite previously failing to timely appear in the case and the pending Motion for Default Judgment against it, the Pan-American Health Organization and its Director have now appeared and are asserting immunity as well for PAHO's role in the abuses.
The Plaintiffs in the case are the former soldiers, orphans, schoolchildren, prisoners, mental health patients, leprosy patients, commercial sex workers and others in Guatemala who were purposefully infected with venereal diseases or otherwise experimented upon without consent, or their heirs and the family members who were also impacted.
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