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[YOUR CHILDREN] USED AS LAB ANIMALS: Where was Child ProtectiveServices????
http://www.foxnews.com/printer_frien...113734,00.html
Drug Tests on Foster Kids Spark Scandal in NYC Wednesday, March 10, 2004 By Wendy McElroy Were HIV-positive infants and children in the Manhattan foster care system (search) used as guinea pigs in medical experiments? That question is at the heart of a potential scandal that could propel child welfare systems in North America toward greater transparency and accountability. On Feb. 29, The New York Post exposed the problem in three articles by Douglas Montero (search): The first, "AIDS Tots Used as 'Guinea Pigs,'" claimed that about 50 children had been used in 13 medical experiments, some involving high doses of AIDS medications, at Manhattan’s Incarnation Children's Center (search). The Post later revised the number to 100 in the light of data released on March 1 by New York City’s Administration for Children's Services, following a review of their files. The second article, "I Took Girls Out of Hell and City Stole Them Back," was the story of Jacqueline Hoerger, a pediatric nurse and foster mother to two girls from ICC, where she had worked from 1989 to 1993. Social workers took the girls from Hoerger because she refused to administer AIDS medications that she learned were "highly toxic and mostly untested in children." At ICC, Hoerger says she witnessed experimental treatment "on HIV-infected children, some as young as three months." In the third piece, an op-ed entitled "Defenseless Kids’ Guardian Agency Won’t Come Clean," Montero posed his questions for the ACS: For example, "how many children were involved?" And, to whom could the children "call for relief if researchers prodded too hard, hurt them, made them cry or made them sick?" In other words, what authority supervised the treatment of children who had no parent or foster parent to render consent? The ACS assigned the children to the studies, but the agency lacks the medical expertise to evaluate whether the application of an experimental treatment is appropriate or abusive. Moreover, according to Anat Jacobson, a spokeswoman for the Public Advocate's Office that serves as a watchdog to the ACS, her agency had no knowledge of the experimental treatments. Jacobson expressed concern that the ACS might have "just unilaterally signed up these kids." The ACS could answer Montero's questions, but instead, it seems to be invoking privacy concerns in order to remain silent. When questions involve aggregate numbers and protocol, however, there is no privacy issue. And there are well-established methods for discussing medical studies that preserve the anonymity of subjects. In the presence of official silence, the facts alleged gain credibility. What are they? A good place to begin is with the ICC, which is run by the Archdiocese of New York’s Catholic Charities and was opened in 1989 to provide residential and outpatient medical care for HIV-infected children. The ICC has conducted dozens of experimental medical studies, most of which were funded by federal grants or — more controversially — by pharmaceutical companies. One of the ICC’s experimental studies, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, was entitled "HIV Wasting Syndrome." Its purpose was "to see how beginning or changing anti-HIV medications affects the body composition … of HIV-infected children." No one could fault researchers for administering appropriate drugs to sick children and monitoring the results, especially when the children might not otherwise receive treatment. But questions immediately arise concerning studies that purportedly tested the "safety," "tolerance" and "toxicity" of AIDS drugs. Or one that tested the reaction of HIV-positive children, ages six to seven months, to the injection of two doses of measles vaccine. The ICC used to offer descriptions of such experiments on its web site, which became abruptly inoperative in the wake of the Post’s investigation. Without data, how can the validity be judged? News of the experiments is already fueling outrage. "They are torturing these kids, and it is nothing short of murder," Michael Ellner of Health Education AIDS Liaison declared of the experiments that ended in 2002. Biochemist Dr. David Rasnick, an expert in AIDS medication, reviewed the AIDS drugs administered to the children and concluded that alone, or in combination as they often were administered, the drugs had "acute toxicity which could be fatal." ACS must be forthcoming. Silence or bureaucratic answers aren’t going to work this time. Driven by criticism by officials such as New York City Councilman Bill DiBlasio, the New York Health Department is beginning to investigate. Moreover, the "scandal" has hit the international press. A headline in last week’s Japan Today announced, "HIV-infected kids in New York used as 'guinea pigs.'" Newspapers in France and the U.K. echoed the accusation. Too many eyes are watching. It is usually parents who look out for children — comfort their tears, shield them from abuse, and make wrenching decisions about their welfare. Who comforted and protected the parent-less, HIV-positive infants and children at ICC? I hope there were hospital staff who held each sick child in their arms and wanted nothing more than to heal the pain. But data has disappeared. Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling reportedly told journalists that he did not know why the experiments stopped in 2002 or whether any of the children had died. Nicholas Scoppetta, who headed ACS during the experiments and has since left the agency to become New York City's current fire commissioner, will not comment. Hopes are not enough. For once, a child welfare system must have the courage and decency to open itself to public scrutiny. http://www.laleva.org/eng/2004/04/ai...inea_pigs.html AIDS tots used as ’guinea pigs’ March 3rd, 2004 (New York Post) By DOUGLAS MONTERO Source: Survivereausida.net February 29, 2004 -- The state Health Department has launched a probe into potentially dangerous drug research conducted on HIV-infected infants and children at a Manhattan foster-care agency, The Post has learned. 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. "They are torturing these kids, and it is nothing short of murder," said Michael Ellner, a minister and president of Health Education AIDS Liaison, an advocacy group for HIV parents. Biochemist Dr. David Rasnick, a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley and an expert in AIDS medication, was outraged because the drugs, alone or combined, have "acute toxicity which could be fatal." He said the drugs’ side effects include severe liver damage, cancerous tumors, severe anemia, muscle wasting, severe and life-threatening rashes and "buffalo hump," where fatty tissues accumulate behind the neck. Housed in a former convent and run by the Archdiocese of New York’s Catholic Charities, the foster-care agency described the experiments on its own Web site, which was abruptly shut down after The Post began making inquiries. Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said experiments at ICC were halted in 2002. He said he did not know why. Zwil- ling also said he did not know if any children had died. An ACS spokeswoman said the agency hasn’t approved any new experiments since 2000 because the "risks outweighed the benefits." She declined to explain further. That agency is also reviewing its files on the case. Jacqueline Hoerger was a pediatric nurse at ICC from 1989 to 1993 and said the experimentation was going on even back then. "We were taught that any symptom we saw was HIV-related," said Hoerger, 43. "The vomiting, diarrhea, wasting syndrome, the neurological side effects - they were dying. There was death." She didn’t think doctors were doing anything wrong, however, until years later, when she tried to adopt two of the foster girls. When she refused to give the kids the center’s high-powered AIDS cocktails for fear it was making them sicker, ACS had social workers take the children away from her. Advocates for children question the ethics of experimenting on foster kids - especially those too young to know what’s happening to them. "The most vulnerable, disadvantaged children are being exploited by powerful entities and used as guinea pigs as if they were not human beings," said Vera Sharav from the Alliance for Human Research and Protection. The tests were conducted by doctors from Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, which was affiliated with ICC until 2002 and reaped the financial benefits of the research. "Through these trials, children at the ICC outpatient clinic gained access to state-of-the-art treatments for HIV," said Annie Bayne, a Columbia spokeswoman. ACS policy states it seeks parental consent before a child is enrolled in a study. If the parents cannot be found, ACS’s medical and legal divisions, and its commissioner, must all approve. The condition, however, is that the experiment "offer each participating child a significant potential benefit, a concomitant minimal risk of injury or harm," ACS spokeswoman MacLean Guthrie said. Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, who headed ACS at the time of the experiments, refused comment. Officials at ICC, which was established in 1989 to house and care for HIV-infected "boarder babies" left stranded in city hospitals, refused to talk to The Post. UK Observer Title: “GlaxoSmithKline Allegedly Used Children as Laboratory Animals” Author: Antony Barnett Barnett's article is based on the original research of Liam Scheff which can be viewed at: http://www.altheal.org/texts/house.htm Democracy Now! December 2004 Title: “Guinea Pig Kids: How New York City is Using Children to Test Experimental AIDS Drugs.” Mainstream Media Coverage: Fox News Network, The O’Reilley Factor, March 10, 2004, CBS Morning News, February 2, 2005. Faculty Evaluator: Jeanette Koshar, Ph. D. Student Researcher: Mike Cattivera, Kiel Eorio Orphans as young as three months old were used as test subjects in AIDS drug trials in New York’s Incarnation Children’s Center. The Center, which is run by Catholic Charities, specializes in treating HIV sufferers, and the drug trials were performed on children with HIV or who were born to HIV-positive mothers. The New York City Health Department is looking into claims that more than 100 children at Incarnation were used in as many as 36 experiments. Most of these experiments were sponsored by federal agencies such as the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Documents obtained by the UK Observer have implicated British pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline’s involvement in at least four experiments conducted at Incarnation since 1995 using black and Hispanic children. Several trials were conducted to test the toxicity of AIDS drugs. In one trial, children as young as four received a high-dosage cocktail of seven drugs; another tested the reaction of six-month-olds to a double dosage of a measles vaccine. Other studies conducted on children included testing AZT, which can carry dangerous side effects, as well as testing the long term safety of anti-bacterial drugs on six-month old babies. GlaxoSmithKline also used children to “obtain tolerance, safety and pharmacokinetic data” for Herpes drugs. These trials were conducted by Columbia University Medical Center doctors. A spokesperson for Columbia University said that there have been no trials at Incarnation since 2000, and that the consent for using the children as test subjects was provided by the Administration for Children’s Services. Consent was based upon a panel of doctors and lawyers who decided whether or not the benefits of allowing the child to receive the drugs outweighed the risks (although it was unclear what recipient “benefits” referred to). Though GlaxoSmithKline has acknowledged their involvement in the trials at Incarnation, they deny any wrongdoing. According to their spokesperson: “These studies were implemented by the U.S. Aids Clinical Trial Group, a clinical research network paid for by the National Institutes of Health. Glaxo’s involvement in such studies would have been to provide study drugs or funding but we would have no interactions with the patients.” The medical community has defended these studies, saying it enabled children, normally without access to treatment, the opportunity to receive AIDS drugs. However, many, outraged at these studies, argue there is a difference between providing children with the latest AIDS drugs and using them for experimentation. According to Antony Barnett, several experiments were considered to be Phase 1 trials, which are among the most dangerous. These drugs are similar to those used in chemotherapy and carry serious side effects. Critics also argue that it is difficult to test babies for HIV, and results are often incorrect; therefore many of these trials may have been conducted on babies or children not actually infected with HIV. These trials at New York’s Incarnation Children’s Center were part of a broader series of HIV and AIDS drug trials that were conducted in at least seven states on foster children. Some children died during the trials. However, government officials have so far found no evidence that their deaths could be directly connected to the experiments.1 NOTE 1. http://washingtontimes.com/metro/200...3959-2907r.htm. BALTIMORE -- Foster children were entered into AIDS drug trials because it was the only way to get the latest drugs for children not responding to approved medications, a state official said yesterday. The children under state care were enrolled in trials at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland Medical System, said Sue Fitzsimmons, a spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services. "What we had was the medical community referring foster kids to the study because it was all that was available for them," Miss Fitzsimmons said. BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEIR "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION... |
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