Rockefeller Foundation Not Liable for Human Syphilis Experiments

A class of over 800 people won’t be able to collect damages from the Rockefeller Foundation based nonconsensual human medical experiments that took place in Guatemala in the late 1940s.

The foundation had an interest in finding a cure for sexually transmitted diseases, especially syphilis, but it didn’t directly participate in what became known as the Guatemala Experiments or control the actions of a foundation official who worked on it, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said Wednesday in affirming summary judgment for the group.

In the mid-1940s, US health officials concerned with the spread of sexually ...