The Ghost of Medical Atrocities: What's Next, After the Unveiling?

[Guest guest]

[Perhaps some autism folks would like to write a Letter to Editor of NYTimes and

to

suggest thimerosal's adverse effects and the CDC coverup (eg, 1-2) as " just

another "

medical atrocity. Following the article are several citations including URLs for

Weldon's

letter to CDC, O'Meara's InsightMag article, plus what shots still contain

thimerosal,

including the flu shot. May I suggest, if you write the times, don't just

forward this

email. Instead, use the citations in support of your letter and use this email's

first

three lines (ie, the article citation and url) as a way to indicate what

prompted your

letter.]

<letters@...>

The Ghost of Medical Atrocities: What's Next, After the Unveiling?

By HOWARD MARKEL, M.D.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/23/health/23ESSA.html

Ever since 1972, when the American public first learned about the Tuskegee

syphilis

research that subjected African-American men to scientific experiments without

their

consent, the medical profession has had much explaining to do about its past.

Since then, several disturbing instances have come to light. In those cases,

scientists,

physicians and the government-sanctioned research or treatments that we would

today

consider unethical, like trials of untested vaccines or medications on mentally

retarded

children and prisoners.

Increasingly, public apologies have been made to smooth over these clinical

transgressions. Yet the doctor in me wonders whether these gestures will cure

what ails

us.

Since 2002, five states — Virginia, Oregon, North Carolina, South Carolina and

California

— have publicly apologized to people who were forcibly sterilized under laws in

effect

from the early 1900's until the 1970's. Thirty-three states enacted such laws in

this

period, and about 60,000 women and men were sterilized. All were deemed " unfit

to

reproduce " by the medical experts of the day.

When these sterilization laws were written, many subscribed to a simplistic

version of

genetics called eugenics and hoped to improve American society by encouraging

the

" healthy " to reproduce while simultaneously preventing those with " deleterious

inherited

traits " from doing so. Under this rubric, mental retardation, insanity and even

criminal

behavior were considered hereditary and the " carriers " of these traits a danger

to future

generations.

Sadly, those targeted for reproductive quarantine were already defined as

outcasts by a

white majority: the mentally ill or retarded, " sexual deviants, " the

impoverished,

African-Americans and immigrants.

The recent series of public apologies for forced sterilizations has unfolded

with markedly

different results, depending on who did the apologizing and the motives of the

person or

group.

In March, with no survivors on hand to hear it, Gray , then the governor of

California, issued an apology for the 20,000 forcible sterilizations conducted

in his

state. In contrast, the previous December, Gov. F. Easley of North

Carolina not

only made a meaningful apology to the families of the 7,500 victims of his

state's

mandatory sterilization laws, he also ensured that their stories would be

remembered by

creating a special historical archive. And last month, Dr. Applegate,

the dean of

the Wake Forest School of Medicine apologized for his institution's involvement

in these

forced sterilizations.

Some activists are now eager to broker a formal apology from Gov.

Granholm to the

3,700 people sterilized in Michigan. But andra Minna Stern, a historian of

medicine at

the University of Michigan, said the issue was far deeper than merely uttering

words of

contrition.

" The biggest danger of the public apologies is that they too readily allow us to

blame our

predecessors as being scientifically misguided or evil and pat ourselves on the

back for

an enlightened, morally informed present, " she said.

Thankfully we have moved out of an era of heavy-handed, coercive sterilization

statutes,

but many of the era's ethical issues remain.

Today, there is a great risk of societal pressures more subtly influencing

reproductive

choices thanks to an ever-expanding repertoire of genetic reproductive

technologies,

therapies and prenatal genetic screening tests.

Dr. A. Lombardo, a bioethicist at the University of Virginia, worked

successfully

last year with his state's Legislature to commemorate Buck, a young woman

sterilized against her will in 1924 after eugenics field workers diagnosed her,

her mother

and, by assumption, 's 7-month-old daughter, Vivian, as " feebleminded. "

Ms. Buck's

case was contested all the way to the Supreme Court where Justice Oliver Wendell

Holmes

Jr. famously opined, " Three generations of imbeciles are enough. "

Although there is a symbolic value to apologizing for the sins of our fathers,

Dr.

Lombardo admits that these " are limited ways of addressing public harms done in

the past. "

Reflecting on her experience as a member of the citizens committee that

convinced

President Bill Clinton in 1997 to apologize for the government's role in the

Tuskegee

syphilis experiments, Reverby, a historian at Wellesley College, said:

" There needs

to be more than a television talk show format of confession and a pledge for

repentance.

Relying only on emotion, while critical and cathartic, is a temporary fix, at

best. "

These apologies would be far more meaningful if they prompted us to reflect on

some

troubling aspects of medical research financed by federal agencies and American

pharmaceutical companies in developing countries today, like experimental drug

trials in

Africa, where there are markedly less strict regulations on patients' rights.

Perhaps the cruelest aspect of such trials is how comparatively little these

federal

agencies or companies do to ameliorate or prevent the scourges that are killing

Africans

and others by the tens of thousands every day.

AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, measles and diarrheal diseases are all major

killers that we

can actually do something about now. Decades hence, will our successors conclude

that the

impulses that nurtured experiments like Tuskegee or public health policies like

eugenic

sterilizations simply moved offshore in the early 21st century?

The stunning advances in medical progress have created new problems as we begin

to dissect

exactly how we arrived at some of this lifesaving knowledge. But after-the-fact

apologies

are soothing balms, not panaceas.

One of the greatest emerging ethical challenges in medical practice, research

and policy

goes well beyond identifying missteps based on human blind spots or outright

prejudices

embedded in past quests for cures. We must make sure we don't repeat them.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

* * * * * * *

Regarding thimerosal's adverse effects and the cover-up, see

Letter to the CDC from Congressman Dave Weldon, MD,(R-FL)

http://www.house.gov/weldon/issues/autism/pdf

Overview of the thimerosal's adverse effects and the coverup:

CDC Study Raises Level of Suspicion.

http://www.insightmag.com/news/573542.html

Thimerosal is 49,6% ethylmercury by weight (1) and is added to some vaccines,

including

most (but not all) flu shots. Here's a damning exerpt from the insight article:

A quote from researcher Geier, MD, PhD: " We went to Atlanta, " he

continues, " to the

CDC, and looked at the VSD [Vaccine Safety Data] data. There is

thimerosal-containing DTaP [diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine] and

thimerosal-free

DTaP, so we asked a question: Among children that got a minimum of

either three consecutive thimerosal-containing DTaPs or three consecutive

thimerosal-free DTaPs, was there a difference in the number of autism cases in

the two

groups? We found mega differences. More than 20 times higher. The rate of autism

in the

children that got more than three doses of thimerosal-containing DTaP

vaccines was much, much higher. Almost all the children that have autism in

that group

were the ones that got the thimerosal-containing DTaP vaccine. The more

thimerosal the greater the cases of autism. "

--O'Meara KP. CDC Study Raises Level of Suspicion.

http://www.insightmag.com/news/573542.html

If you are wondering which vaccines currently contain ethylmercury and which do

not,

visit:

http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm

and

http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm#2

For information about which flu shots contain ethylmercury and which do not,

visit some

CDC-created information at:

Flu Vaccine 2004 Mercury Content

http://www.safeminds.org/NewChart.pdf

* * * * * * *

The material in this post is distributed without profit to those

who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included

information for research and educational purposes.

For more information go to:

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for

purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission

from the copyright owner.

[Guest guest]

The FDA holocaust museum is also worth checking out. The Life Extension

Foundation maintains it and I believe you can find it on their website

at www.lef.org.

Andy . . . . . .. .

> [Perhaps some autism folks would like to write a Letter to Editor of NYTi=

mes and to

> suggest thimerosal's adverse effects and the CDC coverup (eg, 1-2) as " ju=

st another "

> medical atrocity. Following the article are several citations including U=

RLs for Weldon's

> letter to CDC, O'Meara's InsightMag article, plus what shots still contai=

n thimerosal,

> including the flu shot. May I suggest, if you write the times, don't just=

forward this

> email. Instead, use the citations in support of your letter and use this =

email's first

> three lines (ie, the article citation and url) as a way to indicate what =

prompted your

> letter.]

>

> <letters@n...>

>

> The Ghost of Medical Atrocities: What's Next, After the Unveiling?

> By HOWARD MARKEL, M.D.

> http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/23/health/23ESSA.html

>

> Ever since 1972, when the American public first learned about the Tuskege=

e syphilis

> research that subjected African-American men to scientific experiments wi=

thout their

> consent, the medical profession has had much explaining to do about its p=

ast.

>

> Since then, several disturbing instances have come to light. In those cas=

es, scientists,

> physicians and the government-sanctioned research or treatments that we w=

ould today

> consider unethical, like trials of untested vaccines or medications on me=

ntally retarded

> children and prisoners.

>

> Increasingly, public apologies have been made to smooth over these clinic=

al

> transgressions. Yet the doctor in me wonders whether these gestures will =

cure what ails

> us.

>

> Since 2002, five states — Virginia, Oregon, North Carolina, South Carolin=

a and California

> — have publicly apologized to people who were forcibly sterilized under l=

aws in effect

> from the early 1900's until the 1970's. Thirty-three states enacted such =

laws in this

> period, and about 60,000 women and men were sterilized. All were deemed " =

unfit to

> reproduce " by the medical experts of the day.

>

> When these sterilization laws were written, many subscribed to a simplist=

ic version of

> genetics called eugenics and hoped to improve American society by encoura=

ging the

> " healthy " to reproduce while simultaneously preventing those with " delete=

rious inherited

> traits " from doing so. Under this rubric, mental retardation, insanity an=

d even criminal

> behavior were considered hereditary and the " carriers " of these traits a =

danger to future

> generations.

>

> Sadly, those targeted for reproductive quarantine were already defined as=

outcasts by a

> white majority: the mentally ill or retarded, " sexual deviants, " the impo=

verished,

> African-Americans and immigrants.

>

> The recent series of public apologies for forced sterilizations has unfol=

ded with markedly

> different results, depending on who did the apologizing and the motives o=

f the person or

> group.

>

> In March, with no survivors on hand to hear it, Gray , then the gove=

rnor of

> California, issued an apology for the 20,000 forcible sterilizations cond=

ucted in his

> state. In contrast, the previous December, Gov. F. Easley of Nort=

h Carolina not

> only made a meaningful apology to the families of the 7,500 victims of hi=

s state's

> mandatory sterilization laws, he also ensured that their stories would be=

remembered by

> creating a special historical archive. And last month, Dr. Appleg=

ate, the dean of

> the Wake Forest School of Medicine apologized for his institution's invol=

vement in these

> forced sterilizations.

>

> Some activists are now eager to broker a formal apology from Gov. Jennife=

r Granholm to the

> 3,700 people sterilized in Michigan. But andra Minna Stern, a histori=

an of medicine at

> the University of Michigan, said the issue was far deeper than merely utt=

ering words of

> contrition.

>

> " The biggest danger of the public apologies is that they too readily allo=

w us to blame our

> predecessors as being scientifically misguided or evil and pat ourselves =

on the back for

> an enlightened, morally informed present, " she said.

>

> Thankfully we have moved out of an era of heavy-handed, coercive steriliz=

ation statutes,

> but many of the era's ethical issues remain.

>

> Today, there is a great risk of societal pressures more subtly influencin=

g reproductive

> choices thanks to an ever-expanding repertoire of genetic reproductive te=

chnologies,

> therapies and prenatal genetic screening tests.

>

> Dr. A. Lombardo, a bioethicist at the University of Virginia, worked=

successfully

> last year with his state's Legislature to commemorate Buck, a youn=

g woman

> sterilized against her will in 1924 after eugenics field workers diagnose=

d her, her mother

> and, by assumption, 's 7-month-old daughter, Vivian, as " feeblemind=

ed. " Ms. Buck's

> case was contested all the way to the Supreme Court where Justice Oliver =

Wendell Holmes

> Jr. famously opined, " Three generations of imbeciles are enough. "

>

> Although there is a symbolic value to apologizing for the sins of our fat=

hers, Dr.

> Lombardo admits that these " are limited ways of addressing public harms d=

one in the past. "

>

> Reflecting on her experience as a member of the citizens committee that c=

onvinced

> President Bill Clinton in 1997 to apologize for the government's role in =

the Tuskegee

> syphilis experiments, Reverby, a historian at Wellesley College, sa=

id: " There needs

> to be more than a television talk show format of confession and a pledge =

for repentance.

> Relying only on emotion, while critical and cathartic, is a temporary fix=

, at best. "

>

> These apologies would be far more meaningful if they prompted us to refle=

ct on some

> troubling aspects of medical research financed by federal agencies and Am=

erican

> pharmaceutical companies in developing countries today, like experimental=

drug trials in

> Africa, where there are markedly less strict regulations on patients' rig=

hts.

>

> Perhaps the cruelest aspect of such trials is how comparatively little th=

ese federal

> agencies or companies do to ameliorate or prevent the scourges that are k=

illing Africans

> and others by the tens of thousands every day.

>

> AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, measles and diarrheal diseases are all major=

killers that we

> can actually do something about now. Decades hence, will our successors c=

onclude that the

> impulses that nurtured experiments like Tuskegee or public health policie=

s like eugenic

> sterilizations simply moved offshore in the early 21st century?

>

> The stunning advances in medical progress have created new problems as we=

begin to dissect

> exactly how we arrived at some of this lifesaving knowledge. But after-th=

e-fact apologies

> are soothing balms, not panaceas.

>

> One of the greatest emerging ethical challenges in medical practice, rese=

arch and policy

> goes well beyond identifying missteps based on human blind spots or outri=

ght prejudices

> embedded in past quests for cures. We must make sure we don't repeat them=

..

>

> Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

>

> * * * * * * *

> Regarding thimerosal's adverse effects and the cover-up, see

> Letter to the CDC from Congressman Dave Weldon, MD,(R-FL)

> http://www.house.gov/weldon/issues/autism/pdf

>

> Overview of the thimerosal's adverse effects and the coverup:

> CDC Study Raises Level of Suspicion.

> http://www.insightmag.com/news/573542.html

>

> Thimerosal is 49,6% ethylmercury by weight (1) and is added to some vacci=

nes, including

> most (but not all) flu shots. Here's a damning exerpt from the insight ar=

ticle:

>

> A quote from researcher Geier, MD, PhD: " We went to Atlanta, " he co=

ntinues, " to the

> CDC, and looked at the VSD [Vaccine Safety Data] data. There is

> thimerosal-containing DTaP [diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccine] an=

d thimerosal-free

> DTaP, so we asked a question: Among children that got a minimum of

> either three consecutive thimerosal-containing DTaPs or three consecuti=

ve

> thimerosal-free DTaPs, was there a difference in the number of autism cas=

es in the two

> groups? We found mega differences. More than 20 times higher. The rate of=

autism in the

> children that got more than three doses of thimerosal-containing DTaP

> vaccines was much, much higher. Almost all the children that have autis=

m in that group

> were the ones that got the thimerosal-containing DTaP vaccine. The more

> thimerosal the greater the cases of autism. "

> --O'Meara KP. CDC Study Raises Level of Suspicion.

> http://www.insightmag.com/news/573542.html

>

> If you are wondering which vaccines currently contain ethylmercury and wh=

ich do not,

> visit:

> http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm

> and

> http://www.vaccinesafety.edu/thi-table.htm#2

>

> For information about which flu shots contain ethylmercury and which do n=

ot, visit some

> CDC-created information at:

> Flu Vaccine 2004 Mercury Content

> http://www.safeminds.org/NewChart.pdf

>

> * * * * * * *

>

> The material in this post is distributed without profit to those

> who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included

> information for research and educational purposes.

> For more information go to:

> http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

> http://oregon.uoregon.edu/~csundt/documents.htm

> If you wish to use copyrighted material from this email for

> purposes that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission

> from the copyright owner.

>

>

>

>