BACKGROUND 
I 
Surgeons General of the U.S. Army, Navy, and PHS on STD control. 55 NRC 
committees provided initial screening of proposals submitted to the CMR, 
which recommended approval or disapproval to Dr. Vannevar Bush, the OSRD 
Director. 56 Later, Moore chaired the 1946 study section that approved the 
Guatemala research. Dr. Moore’s comments were made in support of a proposal 
to the CMR for a new program of clinical 
research to study chemical prophylaxis for 
gonorrhea. The study would be carried out 
with “human volunteers” and would occur 
in a prison. While initially proposed by 
university-based researchers, PHS researchers, 
including Dr. Cutler, conducted the research 
in 1943 and 1944. 
Terre Haute Prison Experiments, 
1943-1944 
The Terre Haute Experiments, which were 
done at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre 
Haute, Indiana, provide important compar- 
isons and contrasts with the experiments 
conducted several years later in Guate- 
mala. The Terre Haute experiments were 
conducted and supported by many of the 
same people involved in the Guatemala 
experiments, including Dr. Cutler, Dr. John 
F. Mahoney, Dr. Thomas Parran, Dr. Joseph 
Earle Moore, and Dr. Cassius J. Van Slyke. 
The Terre Haute experiments had the same 
goals as the Guatemala experiments (i.e., to 
find a suitable STD prophylaxis) and had a 
Top: Cassius Van Slyke .. , , . 
From the National Library of Medicine similarstudy design. 
Bottom: Joseph Moore 
From Louis Fabian Bachrach - r i • i 
Planning tor the experiments began 
in October 1942, 57 when Dr. Charles M. Carpenter, a researcher at the 
University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, contacted Dr. 
Moore to ask about possible support for conducting gonorrhea prophylaxis 
13 
