They Used Prostitutes; Didn’t They?
The research team took full advantage of the fact that prostitution in Guatemala was legal. Furthermore, penal institutions allowed prostitutes to come in and visit prisoners. The warden of Guatemala City’s Central Penitentiary and the nation’s Ministry of Justice cooperated with the research team and allowed prostitutes to visit inmates. There was a total of 1,500 prisoners in the jail and prostitutes infected with gonorrhea or were permitted to pleasure the prisoners and pass on the disease. Worse still, the study was paid for by the United States taxpayer.
Unsurprisingly, this method was only useful for a short while before it ran into problems. Cutler decided to isolate syphilis and directly inoculate prisoners with it. The researchers used the syphilitic growths on the testicles of infected rabbits or the penile chancres of men who were infected. Then they isolated the spirochete that caused the illness. This was a difficult process since the spirochete only lasted a maximum of 90 minutes outside the body. During this timeframe, the team had to isolate the spirochete, place it in broth and deliver it to the unwitting subjects.
A number of the officials and patients involved in the experiment either knew or suspected that it was unethical. As a result, Cutler and his team had to lie to the relevant parties. He confessed that: “This double talk keeps me hopping at time.” Sadly, Cutler’s attitude was not unusual for the age. There were many scientists who believed that the only way to make a breakthrough was to bend or even break the law.
Thomas Rivers of New York’s Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research Hospital openly admitted to this fact in his 1967 memoirs. He pointed out that while injecting someone with infectious material is a felony in New York; he was allowed test out live yellow fever vaccine. Rivers claimed that the state’s Department of Health knew what he was doing but turned a blind eye.
The Results of the Experiment
It is difficult to determine precisely what happened because the results of the experiment were never published. It is likely that around 1,308 people were involved and most of the subjects were healthy men deliberately infected with syphilis, a disease that is potentially fatal if left untreated. The goal of the experiment was apparently to see how effective penicillin was in treating and preventing venereal diseases.
The oldest participant was 72 while the youngest was apparently only 10 years old. It wasn’t just prisoners that were infected; soldiers, prostitutes, and people with a mental health condition were also infected, and only 52% received treatment for the disease. The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues believes that at least 83 people died in total although they could not ascertain whether or not the infections were directly responsible.
The study probably ended in 1948 because penicillin was deemed too expensive plus Cutler was growing concerned that the experiment could be exposed. There was some follow-up observation and lab testing in the early 1950s. The entire mess was covered up and may not have become global news if not for the determination of a medical historian.