Sometimes saying that you are sorry is not enough

Here is yet another example of our Christian nation in action. During the 1940's, our government decided to conduct disgraceful medical experiments on poor people in Guatemala.

More than 1,300 Guatemalans, almost all of them poor or otherwise vulnerable, were intentionally exposed to the diseases syphilis, gonorrhoea or chancroid without their consent. The experiments also took blood and cerebrospinal fluid from 5,128 adults and children, again with no consent. Of those infected, unknown numbers contracted the diseases and died; others suffered for decades, in some cases infecting their spouses or their children (see Nature 482, 148–152; 2012).

For some ridiculous reason, information about this obscenity did not become public until 2010. When the news broke, the Obama administration was quick to apologize and appointed a blue ribbon panel to investigate, which issued a scathing report ("Ethically Impossible STD Research in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948"). So far, so good. Unfortunately, when it came time to actually do something to help the victim's families, the injustices began anew.

But when lawyers for the victims asked US Attorney General Eric Holder to set up a claims process that would meaningfully compensate the survivors, they hit a wall of silence.

And when the victim's families filed suit against the government agencies that paid for the "research," the government went to court to get the case thrown out.

In a court filing last week, the US government reiterated a stance that it first took in January: that the court should throw the case out because government officials are shielded from lawsuits that arise from actions taken in the course of performing their jobs, and because current officials cannot be held responsible for the acts of their predecessors decades ago.

Pay these people anything they ask for. Anything. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied." When you engage in the "ethically impossible," saying that you are sorry is not good enough.