“ETHICALLY IMPOSSIBLE” STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1948 
None of the principles and requirements reflected in the standards noted 
above were satisfied in the Guatemala experiments. And several — if not all — 
of these principles were known by the researchers in Guatemala at the time. 
Their behavior in a similar case — just two years earlier in the United States — 
and contemporaneous correspondence shows understanding of, and disregard 
for, generally accepted moral principles such as respect for human dignity in 
the course of their work in Guatemala. For these reasons, the Commission 
finds that many of the actions of the researchers were morally wrong and the 
individual researchers and institutional officials were morally blameworthy. 
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