Incarnation Children's Center
From Social Justice Wiki
The Issue:
In the city of New York, approximately 23,000 children are either in foster care or in independent homes run mostly by religious organizations on behalf of local authorities. Over 90% of these children are African American or Latino. They are officially considered wards of the state – which means the Administration of Children’s Services (ACS) is responsible for their well-being. Some of these children are HIV-positive.
In 2004, BBC journalist Jamie Doran released a documentary titled Guinea Pig Kids that alleged that hospitals and researchers had conducted clinical AIDS trials on these children, exposing them to dangerous and even deadly drugs, most with painful side-effects. At one of the main testing sites, the Incarnation Children’s Center, if the children refused to take the drugs, feeding tubes were inserted into their stomachs to force ingestion.
Millions for Reparations, together with the Ad-Hoc Coalition of Concerned Parents and other community groups in the city have protested this mistreatment. According to a statement by the National Institute of Health, all participation in drug trials on the part of children should be completely voluntary, including obtaining assent from the child. Furthermore, all children should be given the current best treatment available. Activist groups across the city maintain that testing potentially lethal drugs on unsuspecting children who have no families to fall back on violates these medical principles.
The Food and Drug Administration is currently investigating the clinical trials, most of which were developed and supervised by officials from Columbia University. Deputy City Council Majority Leader Bill Perkins has denounced the trials, the secrecy surrounding them, and the fact that several children have died over the course of the experiments.
Elected officials and children’s human rights advocates have demanded more information about the cases and ACS’ recent admission that there is a need for further investigation. The question remains: how could anyone treat children in such a manner?
Omowale Clay has a theory: “Our view is that that’s one of the examples we talk about in terms of reparations because the conditions of children of color continue to be the continuing effects of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, that in fact, these children are not real, complete human beings. And where does that concept come from? Because the trans-Atlantic slave trade had relegated human beings to being cannon fodder or stock, like on your farm. And that continues to this very day in terms of how these children are treated.”
In the News:
On Sunday, April 24th 2005, a press conference was held at on the City Hall steps about the issue of AIDS tests carried out on foster children. Councilmen Bill Perkins (D-Harlem) and Charles Barron (D-East New York) are calling for an official investigation into the clinical trials. Meanwhile, Millions for Reparations is holding a protest Saturday, April 30th, at 3pm at the Incarnation Children's Center to condemn these abuses, which they see as essentially a modern day equivilent of the horrific "Tuskegee Experiments."
Links:
The BBC
Democracy Now
San Francisco Bay View
Statement from Incarnation Children's Center
Letter from the NYC Department of Health
Video:
To obtain a copy of the BBC documentary Guinea Pig Kids, which focuses on this issue, Contact Millions for Reparations. Copies are available on VHS and cost $5.