ETHICALLY IMPOSSIBLE” STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1948 
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John Mahoney. (1946, November 22). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0001254; John Cut- 
ler to John Mahoney. (1947, January 7). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0001037; Richard 
Arnold to John Cutler. (1947, Lebruary 27). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0001056; 
Richard Arnold to John Cutler. (1947, April 18). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0001113; 
Ad Harris to John Cutler. (1947, April 21). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0001114; John 
Cutler to John Mahoney. (1947, June 22). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0001241. 
Rothman, D.J., op cit., pp. 30-31. 
Pox, D.M., op cit., pp. 454-455 discussing the legislation that allowed the PHS to make grants-in-aid. 
Public Health Service Act of 1944, Public Law No. 78-410, 58 Stat. 682; see also Pox, D.M., op cit., p. 
454. Before passage of the Public Health Service Act of 1944, the Public Health Service had more limited 
authority to provide aid to states and issue grants-in-aid to combat specific medical illnesses under several 
different statutes. See e.g., Venereal Disease Control Act of 1938, 40 Stat. 886. May 24, 1938; National 
Cancer Institute Act of 1937, Public Law No. 75-244. August 5, 1937. See also Statement, National 
Advisory Health Council. (1945). Science 102(2640):1 13, describing new authority of NAHC under the 
Public Health Service Act of 1944 and Surgeon General Parran’s statement regarding that new authority. 
Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service Act, Public Law No. 57-236, 32 Stat. 712. July 1, 1902. 
Ransdell Act, Public Law No. 71-251, 46 Stat. 379. May 26, 1930, reorganizing and designating the 
Hygienic Laboratory as the National Institute of Health. The Advisory Board was renamed the National 
Advisory Health Council in 1930. Public-Health Activities Act, Public Law No. 71-106, 46 Stat. 150. April 
9, 1930. See also Statement, The National Institute of Health. (1930). Science 72(1861): 214-215, describing 
how the Hygienic Laboratory became the National Institute of Health. 
Meeting of the National Advisory Health Council. (1931). Science 73(1894): 412-413. 
National Institutes of Health, Division of Research Grants. (1996). Division of Research Grants: A Half 
Century of Peer Review Alexandria, Virginia: National Institutes of Health, p. 12. 
Fox, D.M., op cit., p. 456. 
Ibid, p. 457; Division of Research Grants, op cit., pp. 16-22, describing the transfer of OSRD contracts to 
the Research Grants Office. See also Public Health Service Act of 1944, Public Law No. 78-410, 58 Stat. 
682; Strickland, S.P. (1989). The Story of the NIH Grants Program. Lanham, Maryland: University Press 
of America, p. 18, describing how the Division of Research Grants arose as a peacetime replacement for 
OSRD and CMR. 
Pox, D.M., op cit., p. 457. Dr. Van Slyke, with Drs. Parran and Heller, favored a process to maximize 
investigator independence. The award process should be accompanied, Dr. Van Slyke stated, by “complete 
acceptance of a basic tenet of the philosophy upon which the scientific method rests: The integrity and 
independence of the research worker and his freedom from control, direction, regimentation and outside 
interference.” See Van Slyke, C.J. (1946, December 13). New horizons in medical research. Science 
104(271 1):559-562. See also Strickland, S.P., op cit., p. 22, describing the “grant-contracts” that Drs. Parran 
and Van Slyke favored as OSRD contracts were transferred to the NIH grant system. In the January 1948 
introduction to a Public Health Reports supplement, which indexed research awards, Dr. Van Slyke further 
explained: “wide latitude is allowed the responsible scientific investigator in the use of research grants 
funds. Recipients of awards are given complete freedom to conduct projects in whatever ways they choose. 
They are requested to make only such reports as will assure the government that the money being spent for 
their research is wisely and carefully used.” U.S. Public Health Service. (1948). Research Grants Awarded 
by Public Health Service, supplement No. 205. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. PCSBI 
HSPI Archives, MISC_0000037. 
Van Slyke, C.J., op cit., p. 559; Fox, D.M., op cit., p. 457; Strickland, S.P., op cit., p. 19. 
Van Slyke, C.J., op cit., p. 559. See also Allen, E.M. (1980). Historical view: Early years of NIH research 
grants. NIH Alumni Association Newsletter 2(2): 6-8. 
Public Health Service Act of 1944, Public Law No. 78-410, 58 Stat. 692, §301(d); Van Slyke, C.J., op cit., 
p. 562. 
Fox, D.M., op cit., pp. 458-459, citing a December 1945 letter from Dr. Parran to the Federal Security 
Agency administrator. See also Committee on Medical Research and Public Health Service. (1946). The 
treatment of early syphilis with penicillin: A joint statement. JAMA 131(4): 265-266, describing the role of 
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