Prisoners As Guinea Pigs

The use of prisoners in medical research is part of a sordid past in the United States. Until the 1970s, about 90% of drugs were tested on prisoners. Now a panel from the Institute of Medicine has recommended expanding the use of prisoners in clinical trials again.

The report, recommends that the definition of "prisoner" be expanded to cover everyone under corrections authority, and that a centralized database of all clinical research on this expanded population be created and maintained. The panel argues that many prisoners receive inadequate health care, and would benefit from being included in clinical trials.

Given the abusive history of the use of prisoners for experimentation, there are significant concerns that the panel did not address the issue of much stronger oversight of research. In the past, prisoners were used in an array of notorious experiments. (for example: Tuskegee study on syphilis, to chemical weapons experiments, dioxin testing, CIA drug testing).

The issues around using prisoners for drug testing and research are huge. The issue of coercion is constantly present, as is the transparency of the actual research. The issue of lack of redress for unethical testing is also blocked.

Of course, it could be (and has been) very profitable for prisoners to be used in such a way. It could get even more profitable as the number of prisoners increase, and the number of privately operated incarceration facilities come on line. More private prisons are already coming on line with changes in immigration legislation, and private corporations are waiting at the trough.

Utilizing a captive population for clinical trials is not an appropriate way to address poor access to health care.