ETHICALLY IMPOSSIBLE” STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1948 
The researchers also soon encountered problems obtaining cooperation from 
the prisoners. The “Indians,” Dr. Cutler reported to Dr. Mahoney in January 
1947, had “very widespread prejudice against frequent withdrawals of blood,” 
which Dr. Cutler attributed to them being “uneducated and superstitious.” 272 
As Dr. Cutler later explained: 
“Most of [the prisoners] believed that they were being weakened 
by the weekly or biweekly withdrawals of 10 cc. of blood and 
complained that they were getting insufficient food to replace it. 
The fear of what they saw was much more important to them than 
the potential damage which might be done by syphilis years later 
and could not be countered by promises of or actual administra- 
tion of penicillin for syphilis and iron tablets to replace blood. In 
their minds there was no connection between the loss of a Targe 
tube of blood’ and the possible benefits of a small pill.” 273 
The prisoners’ lack of cooperation also threatened the researchers’ ability to 
proceed with the project. 274 The researchers’ plan for prophylaxis research 
“as originally conceived at the prison could not be carried out,” Dr. Cutler 
later wrote. 275 
Children 
Serology testing in children began sometime before June 1947 276 and ended 
in summer 1949. 277 The researchers conducted physical examinations, blood 
draws, and, in some cases, lumbar punctures, on 1,384 Guatemalan children 
between 1 and 18 years of age. 278 Children came from the Orphanage, a school 
at Port of San Jose, Totonicapan, and the “highlands” of Guatemala. 279 Testing 
children below the age of sexual maturity, Dr. Cutler later explained, ensured 
the opportunity for conclusive evidence of false positivity for any testing 
regimen, because subjects presumably would have acquired the disease congeni- 
tally rather than sexually, and congenital syphilis was distinguishable. 280 
There is no record of any of these children being inoculated or exposed to any 
STD. There is also no record that the children knew that they were a part 
of an experiment or had an individual parent or guardian consent on their 
behalf. Guatemalan government officials were aware of, and supported, the 
research. 281 At the Orphanage, the director, Dr. Aragon, collaborated as a 
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