U.S. Claims Immunity from Lawsuit Brought by Victims of Medical Atrocities in Guatemala
January 11th, 2012Via: CNN:
The United States has rejected the grounds of a lawsuit stemming from experiments involving sexually transmitted diseases and human subjects in Guatemala between 1946 and 1948.
At the same time, the government announced increased aid to Guatemala to fight STDs.
In its first response to the class-action lawsuit filed last March by the alleged victims and their heirs, the U.S. government argued that it is immune to such a lawsuit, in a motion to dismiss the suit filed Monday night.
Because the harm was suffered in a foreign country, and because the Guatemalans have not exhausted other administrative solutions, the United States has sovereign immunity under the Federal Tort Claims Act, it said in the motion.
The government said the Supreme Court has “clarified” that the immunity statute “bars all claims based on any injury suffered in a foreign country, regardless of where the tortuous act or omission occurred.”
The United States has apologized for the study, and President Barack Obama asked the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues to look into the details of the research and to assure him that current rules protect people from unethical treatment.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it will invest about $1.8 million to aid the treatment and prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala.
