ETHICALLY IMPOSSIBLE” STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1948 
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MISC 0000907. In addition to the grants funds that the PHS awarded to PASB, the PHS paid the salaries 
of five of researchers working on the STD studies in 1948 (John C. Cutler, Virginia Lee Harding, Sacha 
Levitan, Joseph Portnoy, and Alice Walker), worth $23,585.91 in services in kind. PASB. PASB Statement 
of Services in kind. (n.d.). PCSBI HSPI Archives PAH0 0000577-78. PASB salary records were not 
available for 1946 or 1947, but a conservative estimate for the combined years of 1946 and 1947 would be a 
$27,500 PHS contribution of services in kind. Combining these figures, the estimated amount that the PHS 
provided to PASB in direct funding and services for the purpose of conducting STD research in Guatemala 
is $223,032.91. 
Pan American Sanitary Organization Executive Committee. Final Report of the Fourth Meeting of the 
Executive Committee of the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (1948, May 3-13). p. 9. PCSBI HSPI Archives, 
PITT0000182. 
Describing the construction in a 1951 publication, PASB serologist Genevieve Stout, on detail from the 
U.S. PHS, explained that it was “for the purpose of conducting an investigation of the serologic picture 
presented by the people in that area.” Stout, G.W., Cutler, J.C. (1951). Serology problems (syphilis) in 
Central America. Journal of Venereal Disease Information 32(7): 237. 
Unsigned [John Cutler] to Richard Arnold. (1946, August 21). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, 
CTLR 0001215. 
Dr. Spoto was doing work in Guatemala on onchocerciasis (a parasitic disease that causes blindness). 
Working with Guatemala’s Direccion General de Sanidad Publica, Spoto and his colleagues examined 
more than 1,000 infected people around Guatemala City beginning in 1945. Clark, W.B. (1947). Ocular 
onchocerciasis in Guatemala: An investigation of 1,215 natives infected with onchocerca volvulus. 
Transactions of the American Ophthalmological Society 45:461-501. 
Unsigned [John Cutler] to R.C. Arnold. (1946, August 21). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, 
CTLR 0001215. 
John Cutler to John Mahoney. (1946, September 3). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, 
CTLR 0001213. 
Ibid. 
John Cutler to John Mahoney. (1946, October 1). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0001210. 
John Cutler. (1955, February 24). Final Syphilis Report. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0000629. Joseph 
Portnoy followed in September 1946, Dr. Harlow arrived in winter 1947, and Dr. Levitan joined in 
spring 1947. John Cutler to John Mahoney (1946, September 3). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, 
CTLR 0001213; John Cutler to John Mahoney. (1947, September 21). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI 
Archives, CTLR 0001225; John Cutler to John Mahoney. (1947, February 4). Correspondence. PCSBI 
HSPI Archives, CTLR_0001047. 
John Cutler. (1955, February 24). Final Syphilis Report. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0000641. 
Agreements and “commitments” were also referred to in contemporaneous Cutler correspondence. 
See e.g., John Cutler to John Mahoney. (1946, September 3). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives 
CTLR 0001213; and John Cutler to John Mahoney. (1947, September 20). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI 
Archives, CTLR 0001225. Copies of these agreements were not included in the Cutler Documents and 
have not been located. Searches were conducted in the PAHO archives and the National Archives. 
While the agreements may have given the researchers the authority claimed, it is clear that some of the 
specifics, e.g., use of “orphans and the insane,” were undertaken well after his arrival in August 1946. 
See, e.g., John Cutler to John Mahoney. (1947, January 7). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, 
CTLR 0001039. John Cutler to John Mahoney. (1946, September 3). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI 
Archives, CTLR_0001213. 
John Cutler. (1955, February 24). Final Syphilis Report. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000642. Dr. 
Cutler added that they would have access to “excellent facilities for close follow-up on syphilis” in the 
Military Hospital and Penitentiary. John Cutler to John Mahoney. (1946, September 3). Correspondence. 
PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0001213. 
Ibid. While these agreements could not be located, requests were made to PAHO (the successor 
organization of PASB) and the U.S. government. 
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