Mining bodies: U.S. medical experimentation in Guatemala during the twentieth century

Mining Bodies explores the history of U.S. experimentation in the Central American and Caribbean region during the twentieth century. It focuses in particular on experiments conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS), the Pan American Sanitary Bureau (PASB), and the Guatemalan government during the 1940s in Guatemala on sexually-transmitted infections (STIS). During these experiments, U.S. and Guatemalan doctors intentionally exposed at least 1500 Guatemalans to STIs. The doctors did not provide available treatments nor receive informed consent from the people they experimented upon. This dissertation argues that these experiments arose from a medical research network created by U.S. and Latin American institutions in Guatemala during the twentieth century. They also resulted from systemic factors that included U.S. imperialism in the Central American and Caribbean region, a culture of medicine in the United States and Guatemala, health professionals’ paternalism, and racism. As this dissertation explores the historical factors that enabled doctors to construe Guatemalans as medical subjects, it also highlights the imprint that medical experimentation continues to have on Guatemalans continuing in the present day.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2019

Author dc:creator

• Crafts, Lydia

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hoganson, Kristin L.
• Reagan, Leslie J.
• Dávila, Jerry
• Hogarth, Rana
• Carey, David

• U.S. empire, medicine, experimentation, Central America

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2019 Lydia Crafts

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/105876

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/105876