Medical Experimentation, Prisoner Protections, and Government Liability: A Study on the Violation of Prisoners’ Constitutional Rights during U.S. Experiments in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948

Abstract

From 1946 to 1948, the United States Public Health Services, with the cooperation of Guatemalan government authorities, conducted studies on STD prophylaxis, specifically for chancroid, gonorrhea, and syphilis, using human subjects in Guatemala. The subjects consisted of commercial sex workers, Guatemalan soldiers, mental hospital patients, leprosy patients, and prisoners. This essay analyzes the extent to which these experiments violated the constitutional and legislative protections of prisoners in the United States and Guatemala in the 1940s, as well as how these protections have developed since the 1940s.