New York uses orphans in dangerous drug tests

[painted wolf]

I just found this on the BBC and it disgusted me. I did more digging and became more disgusted.

The city of New York has been testing dangous and toxic HIV drugs on orphans in the states care. The state as the 'childrens providor' felt justified to sign the kids up for the tests regardless of the danger from the drugs. The state Administration of Child Services has been employed to round up HIV positive children. If parents don't put the children on the exparamental drugs than the ACS removes the kids claming that the parents are 'abusive' and places them into foster homes and orpahanages where they can be used to test the drugs.

Over 23,000 of the city's children are either in foster care or independent homes run mostly by religious organisations on behalf of the local authorities and almost 99% are black or hispanic.
Some of these kids come from "crack" mothers and have been infected with the HIV virus. For over a decade, this became the target group for experimentation involving cocktails of toxic drugs.

We asked Dr David Rasnick, visiting scholar at the University of Berkeley, for his opinion on some of the experiments.

He said: "We're talking about serious, serious side-effects. These children are going to be absolutely miserable. They're going to have cramps, diarrhoea and their joints are going to swell up. They're going to roll around the ground and you can't touch them."

He went on to describe some of the drugs - supplied by major drug manufacturers including Glaxo SmithKline - as "lethal".

When approached by the BBC, Glaxo SmithKline said such trials must have stringent standards and be conducted strictly in accordance with local regulations.

whole story is here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/this_world/4038375.stm

more can be found here: http://www.ahrp.org/infomail/04/02/29.php



I agree that testing of new drugs must be done, but to force children to bear the risk unwillingly is inhuman. Honestly I'm too angry to put how I feel about this in words.

wa:do

 

[painted wolf]

some more from the aliance for human reserch protection.

Some 50 foster kids were used as "guinea pigs" in 13 experiments with high doses of AIDS medications at Manhattan's Incarnation Children's Center, sources said.
Most of the ICC experiments were funded by federal grants and in some cases, pharmaceutical companies. They used city foster children, who were sent to the Catholic Archdiocese-run facility by the Administration for Children's Services.
ICC was involved in 36 different experiments, according to the National Institutes of Health Web site. One study researched "HIV Wasting Syndrome," which studied how a child's body changes when his medication is altered.
A handful of the experiments involved combining up to six AIDS drugs - so-called "cocktails" - in children as young as 3 months, and another explores the reaction of not one, but two doses of the measles vaccine in kids ages 6 to 7 months.
Other studies tested the "safety," "tolerance" and "toxicity" of AIDS drugs.

 

[retrorich]

Damn! That sucks!

 

[Quoth The Raven]

This sort of stuff has been going on forever. Apparently over here they infected a stack of orphans with one of the herpes viruses about 30 years ago. Nice to see things haven't changed.
Obviously it costs more to use adult volunteers who can make up their own minds in clinical trials than it does to pay a 'provider' for the use of a child.

 

[Mr Spinkles]

This is madness...I have a hard time accepting that anyone would do such a thing. I'm shocked.

 

[Sunstone]

This is madness...I have a hard time accepting that anyone would do such a thing. I'm shocked.

Likewise. And not much shocks me anymore either. I wonder what sort of ******* came up with doing this?

 

[Runt]

This is absolutely terrible. If Child Protective Services are in on this... who is left to protect these children?

 

[painted wolf]

sadly it seems that when money is involved no one.

wa:do