Lecture 11: Race, Gender, and the United States Public Health Service in Guatemala Flashcards
Who was Dr. John C. Cutler?
In 1946, he led a team of US medical researchers to Guatemala to study prevention of syphilis and gonorrhoea by exposing vulnerable people to STI’s and tested various preventions on them.
When was the US Public Health Service’s Sexually Transmitted Disease Inoculation Study in Guatemala?
1946-1948
What as unethical about the study?
-Medical researchers did not receive informed consent
In this study, who were considered subjects? Who were considered methods?
Men- subjects
Women- methods
What happened in October 1944 in Guatemala?
October Revolution
What happened on October 22 in Guatemala?
Patricia Massacre
Who was the first democratically elected President of Guatemala?
Juan Hose Arevalo
When was penicillin identified as a treatment for gonorrhoea and syphillis?
1943
When was the Nuremberg Code?
1947
What answer was bot the US and Guatemala hoping to answer with these experiments?
important medical question because syphilis was seen as a serious medical and moral problem.
Who was prostitution viewed during wartime?
- Sinister –> the prostitute is the sniper.
- Assumption that she is infected because she is sexually active.
Explain the two study designs used.
Initial (proposed) study design: female prostitutes who tested positive for syphilis or gonorrhoea would be hired to expose male prisoners and soldiers to the infections. Abandoned because transmission rates were low.
Actual study methodology: women, some of whom were not previously infected, were hired and exposed to STIs and were then coerced into sexual ‘contacts’ with the men.
Why did some uninfected when have contacts with uninfected men?
- women were assumed to always be infected
- to appeases suspicions of men within position
- way of getting men involved
- trying to study a naturally transmitted infection–realized abrasions occurred naturally during sex
- hypothesized vaginal mucous helped increase rate of infection regardless
Why was it important that Dr. John C. Cutler indicated a prevalent Indian race in his recordings?
- Doesn’t feel obligated to inform them of the experiments
- Serves his purpose of racial others which allows him to justify it.
How were US concepts of race different than Guatemalan concepts race?
- US is rooted in racial purity. Race is rigid–unchangeable.
- In Guatemala, race was fluid
- Racial categories based on class and physical ideals (clothing, language, marriage, etc.)
- Race and class were intertwined
- You could change your race in Guatemala
