Federal Researchers Tested AIDS Drugs on Foster Children Without Basic Protection

Tuskegee, New York. When did we decide that it was no longer necessary to respect the humanity of our citizenry.

Illinois officials believe none of their nearly 200 foster children in AIDS studies got independent monitors. New York City could find records showing 142 less than a third of the 465 foster children in AIDS drug trials got such monitors even though city policy required them. The city has asked an outside firm to investigate.

To gain access to hundreds of HIV-infected foster children, federally funded researchers promised in writing to provide an independent advocate to safeguard the kids' well-being as they tested potent AIDS drugs. But most of the time, that special protection never materialized, an Associated Press review has found. The research funded by the National Institutes of Health spanned the country. It was most widespread in the 1990s as foster care agencies sought treatments for their HIV-infected children that weren't yet available in the marketplace. The practice ensured that foster children mostly poor or minority received care from world-class researchers at government expense, slowing their rate of death and extending their lives. But it also exposed a vulnerable population to the risks of medical research and drugs that were known to have serious side effects in adults and for which the safety for children was unknown. The research was conducted in at least seven states Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Colorado and Texas and involved more than four dozen different studies. The foster children ranged from infants to late teens, according to interviews and government records.

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