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GUINEA PIG KIDS
Tuesday, 30 November, 2004
1930 GMT on BBC Two ( UK )
Spokesperson Vera Sherav said: "They tested these highly
experimental drugs. Why didn't they provide the children with the
current best treatment? That's the question we have.
"Why did they expose them to risk and pain, when they were
helpless?
"Would they have done those experiments with
their own children? I doubt it."
Power and authority
When I first heard the story of the "guinea pig kids", I
instinctively refused to believe that it could be happening in any
civilised country, particularly the
United States
, where the propensity for legal action normally ensures a high level of
protection.
But that, as I was to discover, was central to the choice of
location and subjects, because to be free in
New York City
, you need money.
I've had many ACS case workers tell me: 'We're ACS,
we can do whatever we want' - David Lansner, family lawyer
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.
Central to this story is the city's child welfare department, the
Administration for Children's Services (ACS).
The ACS, as it is known, was granted far-reaching powers in the
1990s by then-Republican Mayor Rudi Giuliani, after a particularly
horrific child killing.
Within the shortest of periods, literally thousands of children
were being rounded up and placed in foster care.
"They're essentially out of control," said family lawyer
David Lansner. "I've had many ACS case workers tell me: 'We're ACS,
we can do whatever we want' and they usually get away with it."
Having taken children into care, the ACS was now, effectively,
their parent and could do just about anything it wished with them.
'Serious side-effects'
One of the homes to which HIV positive children were taken was the
Incarnation Children's Center, a large, expensively refurbished
red-bricked building set back from the sidewalk in a busy Harlem street.
It is owned by the Catholic church and when we attempted to talk
to officials at Incarnation we were referred to an equally expensive
Manhattan
public relations company, which then refused to comment on activities
within the home.
Dr David Rasnick from the University
of
Berkeley
Dr Rasnick is internationally renowned for his work
on numerous diseases, including cancer
Hardly surprising, when we already knew that highly controversial
and secretive drug experiments had been conducted on orphans and foster
children as young as three months old.
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."
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