Dr. Ken Pope writes on his mail list:
An article with information relevant to patients’ informed consent, protection of human subjects, and the history of medical experimentation is scheduled for publication in the January, 2011, issue of Journal of Policy History.
The article is “”Normal Exposure” and Inoculation Syphilis: A PHS ‘Tuskegee’ Doctor in Guatemala, 1946-48.”
The author is Susan M. Reverby, Marion Butler McLean Professor in the History of Ideas and Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Wellesley College.
This 29-page article is carefully documented with 69 references.
Although usually I provide excerpts from articles, the prepublication copy clearly states: “DO NOT QUOTE WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR.”
However, on page 16, in discussing the issues, the author quotes the prominent virologist, Thomas Rivers, who directed the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research Hospital in New York.
In his 1967 memoir, Rivers wrote:
… Well, all I can say is, it’s against the law to do many things, but the law winks when a reputable man wants to do a scientific experiment.
For example, the criminal code of the City of New York holds that is a felony to inject a person with infectious material.
Well, I tested out live yellow fever vaccine right on my ward in the Rockefeller Hospital.
It was no secret, and I assure you that the people in the New York City Department of Health knew it was being done….
Unless the law winks occasionally, you have no progress in medicine.
The prepublication draft of Dr. Riverby’s article is online at: http://www.wellesley.edu/WomenSt/Reverby%20Normal%20Exposure.pdf