Nearly 800 former
research subjects and their families filed a $1 billion lawsuit Wednesday
against Johns Hopkins University, blaming the institution for its role in 1940s
and 1950s government experiments in Guatemala that infected hundreds with
syphilis, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases.
The lawsuit seeks to
hold the university responsible for the experiments, because its doctors held
important roles on panels that reviewed federal spending on
sexually-transmitted-disease research, including on the experiments in
Guatemala. It also names the Rockefeller Foundation and pharmaceutical company
Bristol-Myers Squibb as defendants.
University officials
said they did not “initiate, pay for, direct or conduct” the Guatemala studies
and will fight the lawsuit.
“For more than half a
century since the time of the Guatemala study, scholars, ethicists and clinicians
have worked with government officials to establish rigorous ethical standards
for human research. Johns Hopkins welcomes bioethical inquiry into the U.S.
Government’s Guatemala study and its legacy,” Kim Hoppe, a university
spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. “This lawsuit, however, is an attempt by
plaintiffs’ counsel to exploit a historic tragedy for monetary gain.”
The lawsuit seeks
compensation for victims to whom President Obama apologized in 2010, expressing
“deep regret” for the experiments. In 2011, a presidential panel on biological
research ethics exposed gruesome details of the studies.
The plaintiffs include
the estates and families of 124 people who died from complications of diseases
that they contracted through the study.
The victims sued eight
U.S. government officials over the study in 2011, but a federal judge dismissed
the case, saying that the government could not be held liable for actions
committed in another country.
Baltimore Sun reporter
Luke Broadwater contributed to this report.
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