Apology far from enough to make up for injuries caused by unethical medical experiments in U.S.

Special: Commentary

(ECNS) -- U.S. city Philadelphia has apologized for unethical medical experiments conducted on mostly black men in one of its prisons last century, unveiling the county’s disgraceful history of racial injustice.

In the city’s statement, inmates in Holmesburg Prison were exposed to viruses, fungus, asbestos and chemical agents including dioxin from the 1950s through the 1970s, resulting in lifelong scars and health issues.

As most of the prisoners were illiterate, it is conceivable that they had no idea what they would suffer before these experiments and many of them failed to get justice until their deaths. Therefore, such a belated apology is far from enough to make up for the great harm they have suffered.

Their rights of life and health are negligible before so-called scientific research and their suffering not only makes the U.S. "human rights" slogan a joke, but also exposes the deep-rooted medical racism in the country.

This kind of unethical medical experiment still has an influence on African Americans. For example, many refuse to get vaccinated against COVID-19 because they don’t believe in the U.S. government.

In fact, victims of unethical U.S. medical experiments are not limited to these prisoners. Orphans and psychopaths were also the targets of such inhuman treatment.

For instance, Danish Radio documentary "The Search for Myself" once accused the U.S. intelligence agency, the CIA, of supporting experiments on 311 Danish children in the early 1960s. Many of them were adopted or orphans and were unknowingly used in secret experiments.

And reports from international media agencies like Reuters also exposed that the U.S. once infected prisoners and patients at a Guatemalan mental hospital with syphilis to test whether penicillin could prevent a sexually transmitted disease, gave hepatitis to mental patients in Connecticut, injected cancer cells into chronically ill people at a New York hospital, and more.

How many cruel human experiments have been covered up by the U.S. and how many people are being tortured now? It is hard to know.

The U.S. has long been bragging that it is a model of human rights in the world, however, its acts prove that “human rights” in its eyes are nothing more than the privilege of a few people arbitrarily depriving the weak of their lives and health, and the power to override the will of the weak and deprive them of their dignity.

In addition to an apology, the county should reflect on these atrocities, actively compensate the victims and their families, and examine itself to end inhuman experiments.