Tuskeegee II: Electric Boogaloo

I saw this story over at Steve Gilliard's always excellent blog, and he posted the clear similarity to the Tuskeegee experiments first. This is outrageous. Such is the new/old way of doing things in Rupublistan* (the nation formerly known as the U.S. of A)!

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 city's Administration of Children's Services (ACS) does not even require a court order to place HIV kids with foster parents or in children's homes, where they can continue to give them experimental drugs.

...

In 2002, the Incarnation Children's Center - a children's home in Harlem - was at the hub of controversy over secretive drugs trials.

Jamie speaks to a boy who spent most of his life at Incaranation. Medical records, obtained by the This World team, prove the boy had been enrolled in these trials.

"I did not want to take my medication," said the boy, "but if you want to get out of there, you have to do what they say."

He also conveys a horrifying account of what happened to the children at Incarnation who refused to obey the rules. "My friend Daniel didn't like to take his medicine and he got a tube in his stomach," he said.

Powerless

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."

So why are these children targetted? Is it simply because they cannot defend themselves?

This is, in essence, a summary of a BBC broadcast. A more detailed report is here.

The story is, of course, the most outrageous thing...BUT how scary is it that this is revealed by a British news organization and NOT by the American media, the most significant (corporate) of which are located in New York City?

Add the two elements together and ask yourselves just how free we really are.

This story should be the goddamned LEAD, or near it, depending on what goes on in Iraq, on all the major broadcasting networks, yet I'll be surprised if it is even reported on any of them.




*I should, to be fair (occasionally this blog tries that) that this occurred in New York State and City, which, while they have a Republican Governor and a Republican Mayor respectively, are not exactly completely run by the GOP, I'd guess there are some Democratic fingers in this policy as well. But the tone of the nation is definitely set by those in power and that certainly is not the Democrats.