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January 10, 2012

U.S. Seeks to Toss Lawsuit by Guatemalan Victims of Medical Experimentation 
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The Obama administration is urging a federal court to throw out a
lawsuit filed by a group of Guatemalans who had been unknowingly exposed
to syphilis, gonorrhea and other sexually transmitted diseases by U.S.
researchers in the 1940s. In a filing by the Justice Department, the
administration described the experiments as unethical and a "terrible
wrong." But the administration argued sovereign immunity protects
federal health officials from litigation stemming from the study.
Guatemalan officials said last month that they have found 2,082 people
were involved in the experiments conducted from 1946 to 1948.



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