The Corpuscle

The Independent is reporting that "under the auspices" of the New York City Administration for Children's Services [ACS], some poor children in New York are being forced to participate in trials of new AIDS drugs.

GSK linked to trials forcing Aids drugs on deprived US children
By Jason Nisse
28 November 2004

[...]

No tests can take place on children without parental consent and drug companies have had great difficulty in the past obtaining such consent for Aids drug trials.

However, the ACS is deemed to be the legal guardian for many HIV-positive children. According to a BBC2 documentary, "Guinea Pig Kids", to be shown on Tuesday, the ACS has forced children to be involved in these trials, removing them from foster homes if the foster parent did not comply and even physically making the children take the drugs.

The programme interviewed the family of Garfield Momodu, an HIV-positive child who was removed from his grandmother and taken into care when she stopped giving him the drugs prescribed in the trials. Researchers also interviewed an unnamed child who said he and others were physically forced to take drugs through a peg-tube inserted into their stomachs.

[...]

It added that the US regulator, the Food and Drug Administration, encouraged the studies.

[...]

The ACS says children were selected for trials only after a rigorous vetting process and has denied that it used any strong-arm tactics.

Note that these are drug trials.

Let's hope this is something other than what it first appears to be.