ETHICALLY IMPOSSIBLE” STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1948 
Appendix I: Waiver Form Proposed in Preparation for the Terre Haute 
Experiments 
STAT&iEUT OF EXPLANATION OF TH t EXPERIMENT AND ITS 
RISKS TO TENTATIVE VOLUNTEERS 
The following is a suggested explanation to be given to volunteers solicited 
for the study. This should be reviewed and if necessary amended by counsel for 
Ciilfi and by legal authority in the States in which experimentation is proposed. 
"Tire study which we plan to carry on hure , and for which we have asked 
your coopert'tion, is concerned with gonorrhea. lou may also know this 
disease as the : clap • , ‘strain*, or the 'running ranges'. Some of you 
havo had the infection at some time in the past, or perhaps several 
times, and you know that it did not make you seriously sick. Recently 
a simple , dependable treatment has been discovered which consists of a 
drug taken in the form of pills. 
"what we propose to try now is to develop certain methods of preventing 
the disease in men uh o are exposed to it. Gonorrhea causes a great loss 
of time in the Army and Navy, and one of the important medical problems 
today is to discover, how to prevent it in the armed forces. Wo believe 
that v;e have effective methods of doing this, but vo cannot know for 
certain until they have boon tested on men. It is not possible to use 
animals for this purpose because they are not susceptible to gonorrhea. 
Therefore, wo t ro culling on you for your cooperation. This is c>no way 
in which you can. specifically help in the war effort. The benefits will 
not be limited to the armed forces but "111 be applied to the civil 
population as well, and it is very likely that you and your families might 
Inter profit from them. 
"In the fj^rst place, I want to assure you that so far as we are able to 
discover, th.jre is no reason to expect any injury from this treatment, 
but one cannot predict wilh positivuncss that tho result in all cases 
will be the seme. Curtain of tho men may develop signs of gonorrhea, 
but in almost every instance they will disappear within a few days after 
treatment, i,Iost of you, however, will have no disease whatever . 
"The general plan of the study is as follows:- First, you will be exam- 
ined to bo certain that you do not now h&vu gonorrhea. Those of you 
who are now or have recently boon infected will not bo accepted for the 
study. Then wo will test methods of prevention (prophylaxis) for use 
ir. the Array and Navy, in oruor to determine if they will prevent the dis- 
ease after exposure to tho infection. 
"One group of mon will be given the drug sulfathiaaolo in the form of 
pills as a preventive . This will bo given at different times before and 
after exposure to the infection, which will be carried out by applying 
the germ to the end of the penis. Another group will first be exposed 
to tho infection in tho sune manner and shortly after will bu given a 
prophylactic treatment. This consists of applying an ointment to tho in- 
side and outside of. the penis. A third group will be exposed to the in- 
fection and later treated with sulf ethics ole , if sign3 of the disease 
should develop. 
Statement of Explanation of the Experiment and its Risks to Tentative Volunteers, (n.d.) Reproduced in Minutes of 
a Conference on Human Experimentation in Gonorrhea Held Under the Auspices of the Subcommittee on Venereal 
Diseases. (1942, December 29). PCSBI HSPI Archives, NARA-II_0000173-76. 
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