ETHICALLY IMPOSSIBLE” STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1948 
1 Throughout this report, the Commission uses contemporary language (e.g., “STDs” instead of “venereal 
diseases”) as opposed to the terminology used in the recovered historical documents, except when directly 
quoting from those materials. Dr. Susan M. Reverby, of Wellesley College, notified the U.S. government 
about the events involving the intentional exposure to STDs in the summer of 2010. 
2 Read-out of the President’s Call with Guatemalan President Colom. (2010, October 1). Available at http:// 
www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2010/10/01/read-out-presidents-call-with-guatemalan-president- 
colom (accessed July 22, 2011). 
3 Joint Statement by Secretaries Clinton and Sebelius on a 1946-1948 Study. (2010, October 1). Available at 
http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2010pres/10/20101001a.html (accessed July 22, 2011). 
4 Ibid. 
5 Caplan, A. (2010, October 1). “Horrific medical tests of past raise concerns for today,” MSNBC. Available 
athttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39463624/ns/health-health_care/t/horrific-medical-tests-past-raise- 
concerns-today/ (accessed August 10, 2011). (“The impact of Tuskegee experiment has had a lasting effect 
on the lack of trust and suspicion minorities have about medical research. . . Many African-Americans 
believe that the government let doctors give people syphilis. While that did not happen in Tuskegee, the 
revelation of the Guatemalan research is a stark reminder that racism and indifference to the weak and 
the vulnerable did permit incredible abuses”) Landau, E. (2010, October 1). “Studies show ‘dark chapter’ 
of medical research,” CNN. Available at http://www.cnn.com/ 2010/HEALTH/10/01/guatemala.syphilis. 
tuskegee/index.html?iref=allsearch (accessed August 30, 2011). 
6 Previously, the historical review was to be performed by the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National 
Academies. The assignment moved to the Commission as more facts came to light. On November 24, 2010, 
the Academies explained: “Since receiving the request from [D]HHS, we have learned that at the time 
of the 1940s Guatemala study at least five individuals served simultaneously on the National Institutes 
of Health Study Section on Syphilis and the National Research Council’s Subcommittee on Venereal 
Diseases. The same individual served as chair of both groups. Because of these overlapping appointments 
between our institution and a body involved in the federal government’s syphilis research program, the 
National Academies should not conduct this historical review.” National Academies Statement on the 
1940s Guatemalan Syphilis Studies. (2010, November 24). Available at http://www8.nationalacademies. 
org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=20101124. 
7 Memorandum from President Barack Obama to Dr. Amy Gutmann, Chair, Presidential Commission for 
the Study of Bioethical Issues. (2010, November 24). Available at http://www.bioethics.gov/documents/ 
Human-Subjects-Protection-Letter-from-President-Obama-11.24.10.pdf (accessed July 22, 2011). 
8 Ibid. 
9 Testimony of Executive Director Valerie H. Bonham to Commission, March 1, 201 1 . 
10 Personal communication, Susan Reverby, Wellesley College, to Brian Eiler, Commission staff, August 3, 
2011. Speaking to the Boston Globe in October 2010, Dr. Reverby described her discovery: “I expected to 
find something on Tuskegee. . .There was nothing. What he left behind were these records from the Guate- 
mala study.” When Dr. Reverby “happened upon the documents” she “was just completely blown away.” 
As she described in the interview: “I was floored.” Smith, S. (2010). Wellesley Professor unearths a horror: 
Syphilis experiments in Guatemala. The Boston Globe. October 2, 2010. Available at http://articles.boston. 
com/2010-10-02/news/29290885_l _reprehensible-research-susan-m-reverby-syphilis-experiments (ac- 
cessed September 8, 2011). 
1 1 Reverby, S.M. (2010, May 2). ‘Normal Exposure ’ and Inoculation Syphilis: PHS ‘Tuskegee ’ Doctors in 
Guatemala, 1946-48 and at Sing Sing Prison, Ossining, New York, 1953-54. Paper presented at the annual 
meeting of the American Association for the History of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN. 
12 National Archives Press Release. (2011, March 28). Available at http://www.archives.gov/press/press- 
releases/2011/nrl l-94.html (accessed September 7, 2011). 
13 For a history of the VDRL, see Parascandola, J. (2001). John Mahoney and the introduction of penicillin 
to treat syphilis. Pharmacy in History 43:3-13. In 1948 VDRL moved from its home in Staten Island, New 
York, to Chamblee, Georgia. See VDRL cooperates with state laboratories. (1954). Public Health Reports 
69 (2): 202. In 1957, VDRL, along with the rest of the PHS Venereal Disease Division, was absorbed by 
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