Bioethical Issues Commission Narrows Scope of Investigation

In January, I complained that President Obama had asked the Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues for "a thorough review of human subjects protection to determine if federal regulations and international standards adequately guard the health and well-being of participants in scientific studies supported by the federal government."

Obama’s Impossible Request

Bioethics Forum has published my essay, "Obama’s Impossible Request," which concerns the president's November 24 charge to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues.

President Obama asked the commission for "a thorough review of human subjects protection to determine if federal regulations and international standards adequately guard the health and well-being of participants in scientific studies supported by the federal government." I term this an impossible request.

U.S. Apologizes for 1940s Human Subjects Research

This is a little off topic for the blog, but today Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius apologized to Guatemala for experiments done there in the late 1940s. Researchers led by a Public Health Service doctor conducted various studies of syphilis, some of which included the deliberate infection of people without their consent.

The story was brought to light by Susan M. Reverby, Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas and Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Wellesley College. Her article, "''Normal Exposure' and Inoculation Syphilis: A PHS 'Tuskegee' Doctor in Guatemala, 1946-48, will appear in the Journal of Policy History in 2011, in a special issue on human subjects research that I edited.

UPDATE: The New York Times has a more complete story, including a nice mention of the Journal of Policy History.