'Ethically Impossible': STD Research in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948

In response to the President's request of November 24, 2010, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues (Bioethics Commission) oversaw this thorough fact-finding investigation into the specifics of the U.S. Public Health Service-led studies in Guatemala involving the intentional exposure and infection of vulnerable populations. Following a nine-month intensive investigation, the Bioethics Commission concluded that the Guatemala experiments involved gross violations of ethics as judged against both the standards of today and the researchers’ own understanding of applicable contemporaneous practices.https://ssrn.com/abstract=245679

Continuing the conversation about public health ethics: education for public health professionals in Europe

An important related question is why we should teach public health ethics. Fundamentally, we must teach public health ethics because ethical practice creates and maintains public trust and public health cannot function without public trust. To serve the public—whether through controlling an outbreak of an infectious disease, preparing for or responding to public health emergencies, or reducing the impact of non-communicable diseases—communities and individuals must trust our decisions and actions. This trust grows in large part from past successes, transparent and participatory decision making, and ethical management of the inevitable moral tensions that arise in our work.S