Human Experimentation in Puerto Rico

It was in my research of my fellow Puerto Rican, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, that I came upon information regarding medical experimentation illegally performed on Puerto Ricans.  I had heard before of the Puerto Rican Pill Trials (a human trial study of contraception pills done on Puerto Rican women); but forced sterilizations, injecting live cancer cells in unwitting patients and exposing prisoners to radiation, exceeded my previous knowledge of the situation.

My previous post, dated June 2, 2011, covered and exposed the use of radiation poisoning to inmates, one of its victim being Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos.  So, other than this mention, nothing else will be added regarding that atrocity in this post.

In 1932, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos wrote a manuscript in which he accused Dr. Cornelius P. Rhoads of killing Puerto Rican patients as part of the medical experiments conducted in San Juan's Presbyterian Hospital for the Rockefeller Institute.  His proof was a third party letter in which Dr. Rhoads admits to injecting live cancer cells in patients.  The letter also included inflammatory racists comments denigrating Puerto Ricans for their alleged bad character. Investigations at the time did not publicly reveal evidence of malicious activity to support the claim and Dr. Rhoads was vindicated while Albizu Campos was discredited.  Wikipedia

Years later, in 2003, after an independent investigation led by the eminent bio ethicist Dr. Jay Katz, of Yale University, the American Association for Cancer Research removed Dr. Rhoad's name from their annual award intended for an "individual on the basis of meritorious achievement in cancer research."  Although, no formal apology was exercised, none was truly required.  I personally applaud the AACR.

This was by no means the only human study that was to be conducted in Puerto Rico.

In the 1950s, an oral contraceptive was being developed in Boston, MA.  The preliminary Boston Trials had given the team of John Rock and Gregory Pincus the confidence they needed to pursue a more lucrative endeavor in the marketing of such a product.  But without large scale human trials, Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval would never be given and marketability would be nil.

Just so happens that in the summer of 1955, Pincus visited Puerto Rico and found the perfect location.

Puerto Rico was a U.S. Territory, densely populated, officials supported birth control as a form of population control, no anti-birth control laws and Pincus was impressed with the vast networks of birth control clinics already in place.

Another aspect that he found appealing was that if Pincus could show that the poor, uneducated women of Puerto Rico could follow the Pill regimen, then women anywhere in the world could too.  Pincus hoped to quiet critics' concerns that "oral" contraceptives would be too "complicated" for women in developing nations and American inner cities to use.

The barrio of Rio Piedras saw the first trials in April, 1956. At the time, most women relied on sterilization or abortion to limit their family size, the Pill was a welcomed alternative.

The pharmaceutical company G.D. Searle provided the pills for the trial.  Rock selected a high dose of Enovid, the company's brand name for their synthetic oral progesterone to ensure no pregnancies would occur while test subjects were on the drug.  Later, after discovering Enovid worked better with small amounts of synthetic estrogen, that active ingredient was added to the Pill as well.  (As a side note, the dosage first used by the Rock Pinus team has been reduced drastically to conform to medically accepted dosage for these drugs.  To administer that amount today would be deemed criminal.)

Rock and Pincus dismissed reports of serious side affects. Three women died during the trials, but no autopsy or investigations were preformed to exclude the Pill as the cause of these young women's deaths.  In later years, the Pincus team would be accused of deceit, colonialism and the exploitation of poor women of color.

The women had only been told that they were taking a drug that prevented pregnancy, not that it was a clinical trial, that the Pill was experimental or that there was a chance of potentially dangerous side effects.

In the 1950s, research involving human subjects was much less regulated than it is today.  Pincus and Rock believed that they were following the appropriate ethical standards of the time.

Another disturbing procedure Puerto Ricans were compelled to endure was that of forced sterilization.  Below is a paragraph from STERILIZATION OF PUERTO RICAN WOMEN: By Florita Z. Louis de Malave, May 1999; which, in my view, encompasses and brings to light, the plight of human experimentation on the island.

[The colonial legacy of controlling women's sexuality and reproduction continues to prevail with such policies as the testing of the I.U.D., birth control pills and the sterilization of women. In the case of sterilization, the subject of this bibliography, between the 1930s and the 1970s approximately one-third of Puerto Rico's female population of childbearing age had undergone the operation, the highest rate in the world. So common was the practice that the words "sterilization" and "la operacion" (the operation) were used interchangeably. The massive sterilization of Puerto Rican females warrants that their experience be brought to the forefront, and there's the hope that this bibliography will stimulates interest and further research in the subject.]

This subject is of personal significance to me, in that, I was robbed of knowing my maternal grandmother,  Tomasa Martinez Rodriguez, due to complications after a sterilization operation.  She died in 1942, when my mother, Antonia Rivera Martinez, was only 7 years old.

I urge you to look up the subject of forced sterilization in Puerto Rico; on the internet.

I firmly believe that political, racial, social economic and colonial views are much to blame for the abuses  of human experimentation implemented in Puerto Rico.  I doubt very much that such lack of concern for humanity would have been perpetuated on Americans of a lighter complexion; Americans that live in one of the established fifty states; or Americans that can vote unscrupulous politicians bought by pharmaceutical companies and unethical medical institutions, out of office.

*Another source for this post was:  PBS Online Home Programs, The Pill, 1999.

Pedro Albizu Campos: Father of Puerto Rican Nationalism

There is no one word that can do justice to the human phenom, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos (June 29, 1893 or September 12, 1891-April 21, 1965).   That he happened to have been born Puerto Rican, well, that is just one more reason I have to take pride in my cultural roots.

Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos is popularly known as the Father of Puerto Rican Nationalism; he fought for Puerto Rican Independence,  peasant and workers' rights,  brought to light injustices perpetrated by medical institutions, organized many uprisings and is credited for implementing national Puerto Rican holidays and emblems in existence today, such as, the Puerto Rican Flag.

In Latin American cultures, both parents' last names are used, first the paternal and then the maternal.  This, in a sense, announces which two families you are bred from; a very powerful and sometimes, damning aspect of our culture.  You either had to live up to the family name or distance yourself from it as much as possible.

Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos was to have been very proud of both family names.  He was nephew of danza composer Juan Morel Campos and cousin of Puerto Rican educator Dr. Carlos Albizu Miranda.  Both of these men are illustrious figures in Puerto Rican history.  In keeping with family expectations, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos excelled in academics at an early age.  In 1912,  Dr. Albizu Campos was awarded a scholarship to study Engineering, specializing in Chemistry at the University of Vermont.   In 1913, he continued his studies at Harvard University.

When War World I broke out, in the summer of 1914, Dr. Albizu Campos volunteered in the United States Infantry.  Once his basic training was completed he was assigned to the 375 Infantry Regiment, an all black unit, according to the U.S. military segregation policies of the time.   First Lieutenant Pedro Albizu Campos was honorably discharged from the Army in 1919.  The racism he experienced during his military service influenced the way Dr. Albizu Campos viewed the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico.   It cemented firmly his belief that Independence was the only path for Puerto Rico.

After the War, he returned to Harvard University and graduated with a Law Degree, in June 1922, while studying Literature, Philosophy, Chemical Engineering and Military Science.  He was fluent in English, Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, Italian, Latin and Greek.  Dr. Albizu Campos met, and I am sure, was influenced by the likes of Subhas Chandra Bose (Indian Nationalist Leader with Mahatma Gandhi); the Hindu poet Rabindranath Tagore; and Éamon de Valera, Irish Nationalist and future President of Ireland. Dr. Albizu Campos later became a consultant in the drafting of the constitution of the Irish Free State.

Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos, was elected president of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, advocating Puerto Rican Independence, on May 11, 1930. Due to his involvements in the many riots that were occurring throughout the island, Dr. Albizu Campos was tried in 1937 for "seditious conspiracy to overthrow the U.S. Government in Puerto Rico."  He was acquitted with a jury of 7 Puerto Ricans and 5 Americans. The presiding judge in the case, Judge Cooper, ordered a new jury, which consisted of 10 Americans and 2 Puerto Ricans; resulting in the desired guilty verdict.  The Boston Court of Appeals, which has appellate jurisdiction over federal matters in Puerto Rico, upheld the verdict.

In his 1939 speech, Five Years of Tyranny, U.S. Congressman Vito Marcantonio, called the trial a "frame-up" and "one of the blackest pages in the history of American jurisprudence."  Providing evidence that the Albizu Campos' jury was a prejudiced one, which had been hand-picked by the prosecuting attorney, Mr. Cecil Snyder, to include "jurors who had expressed publicly bias and hatred for the defendants" and a prosecuting attorney [Snyder] who had been assured via a dispatch from Washington that "the Department of Justice would back him until he did get a conviction",  Marcantonio added, "The continuance of this [Albizu Campos] incarceration is repugnant to our democratic form of government; it is repugnant to our Bill of Rights and out of harmony with our good neighbor policy.  There is no place in America for political prisoners.  As long as Puerto Rico remains part of the United States, Puerto Rico must have the same freedom, the same civil liberties, and the same justice which our forefathers laid down for us.  Only a complete and immediate unconditional pardon will, in a very small measure, right this historical wrong."  Congressman Marcantonio then concluded, "When we ask ourselves, "Can it happen here?" the Puerto Rican people can answer, "It has happened in Puerto Rico. "Wikipedia

Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos' first incarceration lasted more than 10 years,  in 1947, he returned to Puerto Rico, just in time to organize and begin the struggle against the proposed plans to change Puerto Rico's political status into a commonwealth of the United States.

It was during these decades of turmoil that in 1950 Dr. Albizu Campos was again incarcerated and sentenced to 80 years.  He was accused of inciting the Harry S. Truman assassination attempt, and later, while in custody, masterminding the 1954 Nationalist Shooting in the House of Representatives.  Although, pardoned twice by Luis Muñoz Marín, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos spent the rest of his life in prison.  His pleads that he was being blasted with radiation rays, were mostly ignored as the rantings of a lunatic.  On April 21, 1965, Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos died of his various mysterious illnesses.  In 1994, under the Clinton Administration, the United States Department of Energy disclosed that human radiation "experiments" had in fact been conducted without consent on prisoners in the 1960s and 1970s.  It has been alleged that Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos was among the subjects of such experimentation.

*A second more precise blog on human experimentation in Puerto Rico is forthcoming.