“ETHICALLY IMPOSSIBLE” STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1948 
A fter Dr. Cutler left Guatemala in December 1948, several investigators 
continued with discrete aspects of the work he had begun. Genevieve 
Stout conducted a series of serology experiments that, while similar to Dr. 
Cutler’s serology work, functioned as stand-alone experiments that she (and 
others) published independently. 614 Dr. Juan Funes, Chief of the Venereal 
Disease Section at the Guatemalan National Department of Health, and Dr. 
Carlos Salvado, the Director of the Psychiatric Hospital, carried out follow 
up on subsets of the subjects enrolled in the serology and intentional exposure 
experiments. Despite the time spent in Guatemala and the continuing obser- 
vations of subjects that were funded, the Guatemala intentional exposure data 
were never published directly by any of the researchers. 
Serology Experiments 
PASB hired Genevieve Stout (on leave from 
PHS) in 1948 “to continue the laboratory as 
a training center for serologists and techni- 
cians” and to “promote the standardization of 
serological techniques of other laboratories in 
Central America and Panama.” 615 PASB and 
the Ministry of Public Health agreed to make 
the new project a joint endeavor and planned 
to enter into a two-year contract to establish 
the new laboratory. 616 “Dr. Galich. . .agreed 
to assign the entire personnel of the present 
serological laboratory of Sanidad Publica 
Genevieve Stout at a convention of the 
[the Ministry or Public Health] to this iabo- Montana Society of Medical Technologists, 
. . „ , 1953 From Leo Carper 
ratory and to pay their salaries, and PASB 
agreed to provide funding for a number of staff members as well. 617 Stout was 
instrumental in establishing the new venture; she arrived in August 1948 to 
“activate the Venereal Disease Laboratory and Training Center for Central 
America” and remained in Guatemala until August 1951. 618 
Stout and her staff conducted a number of serological experiments. 619 They 
primarily worked in six recently established laboratories across Central America, 
and in at least one experiment they worked with a total of 1 1 different labora- 
tories. 620 Many of the experiments directed by Stout sought to standardize the 
Kahn Standard and VDRL slide test in use at these laboratories. 621 
82 
