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Report: HIV-Kids in NY Used as Guinea Pigs

By Jeralyn, Section Civil Liberties
Posted on Thu Dec 02, 2004 at 05:03:43 AM EST
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Is this a travesty akin to the Tuskeegee experiments? The BBC reports on Guinea Pig Kids in New York. The show first aired on November 30. If there's a re-run, and you get BBC on cable, definitely tune in:

Vulnerable children in some of New York's poorest districts are being forced to take part in HIV drug trials....During a nine month investigation, the BBC has uncovered the disturbing truth about the way authorities in New York City are conducting the fight against Aids.

HIV positive children - some only a few months old - are enrolled in toxic experiments without the consent of guardians or relatives. In some cases where parents have refused to give children their medication, they have been placed in care.

The medication, according to some doctors, is potentially lethal for the children:

Dr David Rasnick from the University of Berkeley who has studied the effects of HIV drugs on patients - particularly children - says these drugs are "lethal".

"The young are not completely developed yet," he says. "The immune system isn't completely mature until a person's in their teens."

The drug companies involved include Britain's Glaxo SmithKline (GSK,) which defends the drug trials as being legal. Yet, as BBC notes:

Under federal rules, consent for children to take part in drug trials has to be given by their parents. But what if that child is in the care of New York City authorities, which volunteered it for trials in the first place?

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