ETHICALLY IMPOSSIBLE” STD Research in Guatemala from 1946-1948 
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Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0000704. The contemporaneous literature defines the “abortive cure” 
of syphilis as “essentially the systematic speculative under-estimation of the amount of treatment required 
by the seronegative primary stage,” which was a dated treatment from the turn of the century. Stokes, J.H., 
Beerman, H., Ingraham, N. R. (1944). Modern Clinical Syphilology: Diagnosis, Treatment, Case Study. 
Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, pp. 1094-1114. 
John Cutler. (1955, February 24). Final Syphilis Report. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0000731. 
Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000741. 
See Cutler Documents. (1947-1948). Guatemala Journal Studies with the Military (GC). Clinical notebook. 
PCSBI HSPI Archives CTLR 0000620 and John Cutler. (1955, February 24). Final Syphilis Report. 
PCSBI HSPI Archives CTLR_0000885. 
John Cutler. (1955, February 24). Final Syphilis Report. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000640. 
Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0000885. 
Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0000648. The researchers were having such a difficult time causing 
infections through the sex workers that Dr. Harlow conveyed his amusement to Dr. Mahoney that the only 
person they managed to infect in the prison was the “prisoner-secretary” of the Penitentiary hospital who 
“had contact” with “one of our female hirelings whom we thought was non-infected.” Dr. Harlow “could 
not help laughing at the irony of the situation” and even asked the secretary not to take sulfa or penicillin 
as treatment which “he unfortunately had access to.” The next day the discharge and symptoms abated 
and Dr. Harlow “fear[ed] he may have treated himself.” John Cutler. (1955, February 24). Final Syphilis 
Report. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000762. 
Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000640. 
Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000762. 
Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000722-23. 
Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000699. 
Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000764. 
Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0000696. It is also possible that they wanted to avoid giving the 
prisoners time to speak with each other and the opportunity to decline to participate in future experiments. 
Dr. Cutler did not later report any evidence of transmission of jaundice or other infection. John Cutler. 
(1955, February 24). Final Syphilis Report. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000679. 
John Cutler to John Mahoney. (1947, January 7). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0001039. 
Richard Arnold to John Cutler. (194[7], April 19). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, 
CTLR 0001220. This letter is originally dated April 19, 1948, however it is clear that this was a typo from 
context (e.g., the discussion about Joseph Portnoy’s salary letter that Dr. Cutler forwarded to them on April 
10, 1947) and that the letter should have been dated April 19, 1947. See e.g., John Cutler to John Mahoney. 
(1947, April 10). Correspondence. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0001059. 
Richard Arnold to John Cutler. (1947, April 19). PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0001220. 
Ibid. 
John Cutler. (1955, February 24). Final Syphilis Report. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000648. 
Ibid, PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR_0000658. 
PCSBI. (2011). Subject Database. 
Ibid. This data also includes at least one nurse who worked at the Psychiatric Institution who was exposed 
to syphilis twice through injection. Cutler Documents. (1948, May 9). Asilo de Alienados: Immune 
Experiment No 14. Protocols. PCSBI HSPI Archives, CTLR 0002224; Cutler Documents. Insane Asylum 
Asilo des Alienados and Prison Patient Records, (various dates). Subject Notecard. PCSBI HSPI Archives, 
CTLR 0003885. 
See, e.g., Cutler Documents, (n.d.). Insane Asylum Asilo de Alienados and Prison Patient Records. 
(Various dates). Subject note cards. PCSBI HSPI Archives CTLR 0002635. 
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