John Cutler
Photo by National Library of Medicine
Photo Description: A portrait of John Cutler
Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues/National Archives and Records Administration
Photo Description: One of the patients photographed after researchers inoculated her with a venereal disease while marking how long she was in the process.
"“It’s too easy to say, ‘Oh, we’d never do anything like that,['] ... We really need to think about what we’re doing now that’s going to look horrible in 20 years." ~ Susan Reverby
Victim Retellings of the Guatemala Syphilis Experiment
Male Insane Asylum Pictures* - National Archives and Records Administration *(censored personal information by Manette Perez)
Photo Description: Six men from the psychiatric ward are photographed by the researchers.
The Guatemala Syphilis Experiment was a medical study from 1946 to 1948 which was conducted on Guatemalan soldiers, prisoners, and mentally ill patients to see the progress of syphilis and gonorrhea. They aimed to find out the stages that affected a variety of people. The initial plan was to cure their patients of syphilis, but the end result was switched to a treatment. However, the doctors and medical professionals forcibly inoculated people with STIs to see how the disease would affect the patients. Patients would be in pain, days on end in unsanitary labratories unless they were chosen for the treatment. The victims never gave consent and were not of informed what the experiment consisted of until it was already too late.
John C. Cutler conducted the experiment with Dr. Mahoney overseeing it.
The study was exposed in 2010 by Susan Reverby who brought it up to the president's Commision of Bio-Ethics. To this day, there is still no justice for the Guatemalan families that have been affected by the experiment and no reparations have been given.
Main Doctors in Charge of the Experiment
John F. Mahoney
Photo by National Library of Medicine
Photo Description: A portrait of John Mahoney
Dr. Joseph Earle Moore
Photo by Louis Fabian Bachrach
Photo Description: A photograph of Joseph Moore
"Prison and Insane Asylum Photographs to Accompany Final Report" - National Archives and Records Administration
Photo Description: A photo of a patient's arm which is marked to indicate venereal disease and where they were inoculated.
"Index Cards" - National Archives and Records Administration
Photo Description: One of the thousands index cards to describe the process of the inoculation of that patient and when they inoculated.
"Enemy Agent" - National Archives and Records Administration
Photo Description: A propaganda poster by the U.S. army or government to show how venereal disease has taken many lives from World War 2.