[YOUR CHILDREN] USED AS LAB ANIMALS: Can You Imagine: When..

More ACS kids tied to HIV drug trials

Thursday, August 16th 2007, 4:00 AM


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/08/16/2007-08-16_more_acs_kids_ti...to_hiv_

The number of foster care children with HIV who may have been steered
into experimental drug trials has hit 714 - 54% higher than city
officials had first estimated, the Vera Institute of Justice revealed
this week.

The institute, at the request of the city's child welfare agency, has
been tracking how many foster kids took part in the controversial trials
from 1998 to 2001.

For the past two years, investigators have been monitoring whether
proper procedures were followed in signing the children up and also
determining the children's current conditions. The final report is due
next spring.

The Administration for Children's Services first pegged the number at
465, but as files continue to be found, the number of possible
participants keeps growing. In the previous quarter, which ended July 1,
Vera added an additional 51 children.

ACS spokeswoman Sheila Stainback said the agency "is committed to
finding every child in foster care who may have been enrolled in these
clinical trials" but added, "We won't know the exact number until the
Vera Institute completes its investigation."






[YOUR CHILDREN] USED AS LAB ANIMALS: Can You Imagine: When even The
Angels Cry?

http://www.laleva.org/eng/2004/04/aids_tots_used_as_guinea_pigs.html

"They are torturing these kids, and it is nothing short of murder," said
Minister Michael Ellner

AIDS tots used as ’guinea pigs’

March 3rd, 2004 (New York Post)
By DOUGLAS MONTERO
Source: Survivereausida.net

February 29, 2004 -- The state Health Department has launched a probe
into potentially dangerous drug research conducted on HIV-infected
infants and children at a Manhattan foster-care agency, The Post has
learned.

Some 50 foster kids were used as "guinea pigs" in 13 experiments with
high doses of AIDS medications at Manhattan’s Incarnation Children’s
Center, sources said.

Most of the ICC experiments were funded by federal grants and in some
cases, pharmaceutical companies. They used city foster children, who
were sent to the Catholic Archdiocese-run facility by the Administration
for Children’s Services.

ICC was involved in 36 different experiments, according to the National
Institutes of Health Web site. One study researched "HIV Wasting
Syndrome," which studied how a child’s body changes when his medication
is altered.

A handful of the experiments involved combining up to six AIDS drugs -
so-called "cocktails" - in children as young as 3 months, and another
explores the reaction of not one, but two doses of the measles vaccine
in kids ages 6 to 7 months.

Other studies tested the "safety," "tolerance" and "toxicity" of AIDS drugs.

"They are torturing these kids, and it is nothing short of murder," said
Michael Ellner, a minister and president of Health Education AIDS
Liaison, an advocacy group for HIV parents.

Biochemist Dr. David Rasnick, a visiting scholar at the University of
California at Berkeley and an expert in AIDS medication, was outraged
because the drugs, alone or combined, have "acute toxicity which could
be fatal."

He said the drugs’ side effects include severe liver damage, cancerous
tumors, severe anemia, muscle wasting, severe and life-threatening
rashes and "buffalo hump," where fatty tissues accumulate behind the neck.

Housed in a former convent and run by the Archdiocese of New York’s
Catholic Charities, the foster-care agency described the experiments on
its own Web site, which was abruptly shut down after The Post began
making inquiries.

Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said experiments at ICC were
halted in 2002. He said he did not know why. Zwil- ling also said he did
not know if any children had died.

An ACS spokeswoman said the agency hasn’t approved any new experiments
since 2000 because the "risks outweighed the benefits." She declined to
explain further. That agency is also reviewing its files on the case.

Jacqueline Hoerger was a pediatric nurse at ICC from 1989 to 1993 and
said the experimentation was going on even back then. "We were taught
that any symptom we saw was HIV-related," said Hoerger, 43. "The
vomiting, diarrhea, wasting syndrome, the neurological side effects -
they were dying. There was death."

She didn’t think doctors were doing anything wrong, however, until years
later, when she tried to adopt two of the foster girls. When she refused
to give the kids the center’s high-powered AIDS cocktails for fear it
was making them sicker, ACS had social workers take the children away
from her.

Advocates for children question the ethics of experimenting on foster
kids - especially those too young to know what’s happening to them.

"The most vulnerable, disadvantaged children are being exploited by
powerful entities and used as guinea pigs as if they were not human
beings," said Vera Sharav from the Alliance for Human Research and
Protection.

The tests were conducted by doctors from Columbia Presbyterian Medical
Center, which was affiliated with ICC until 2002 and reaped the
financial benefits of the research.

"Through these trials, children at the ICC outpatient clinic gained
access to state-of-the-art treatments for HIV," said Annie Bayne, a
Columbia spokeswoman.

ACS policy states it seeks parental consent before a child is enrolled
in a study. If the parents cannot be found, ACS’s medical and legal
divisions, and its commissioner, must all approve.

The condition, however, is that the experiment "offer each participating
child a significant potential benefit, a concomitant minimal risk of
injury or harm," ACS spokeswoman MacLean Guthrie said.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, who headed ACS at the time of the
experiments, refused comment.

Officials at ICC, which was established in 1989 to house and care for
HIV-infected "boarder babies" left stranded in city hospitals, refused
to talk to The Post.

Posted by on April 5, 2004 10:54 AM






AIDS tots used as ’guinea pigs’

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/08/16/2007-08-16_more_acs_kids_ti...to_hiv_

March 3rd, 2004 (New York Post)
By DOUGLAS MONTERO
Source: Survivereausida.net

February 29, 2004 -- The state Health Department has launched a probe
into potentially dangerous drug research conducted on HIV-infected
infants and children at a Manhattan foster-care agency, The Post has
learned.

Some 50 foster kids were used as "guinea pigs" in 13 experiments with
high doses of AIDS medications at Manhattan’s Incarnation Children’s
Center, sources said.

Most of the ICC experiments were funded by federal grants and in some
cases, pharmaceutical companies. They used city foster children, who
were sent to the Catholic Archdiocese-run facility by the Administration
for Children’s Services.

ICC was involved in 36 different experiments, according to the National
Institutes of Health Web site. One study researched "HIV Wasting
Syndrome," which studied how a child’s body changes when his medication
is altered.

A handful of the experiments involved combining up to six AIDS drugs -
so-called "cocktails" - in children as young as 3 months, and another
explores the reaction of not one, but two doses of the measles vaccine
in kids ages 6 to 7 months.

Other studies tested the "safety," "tolerance" and "toxicity" of AIDS drugs.

"They are torturing these kids, and it is nothing short of murder," said
Michael Ellner, a minister and president of Health Education AIDS
Liaison, an advocacy group for HIV parents.

Biochemist Dr. David Rasnick, a visiting scholar at the University of
California at Berkeley and an expert in AIDS medication, was outraged
because the drugs, alone or combined, have "acute toxicity which could
be fatal."

He said the drugs’ side effects include severe liver damage, cancerous
tumors, severe anemia, muscle wasting, severe and life-threatening
rashes and "buffalo hump," where fatty tissues accumulate behind the neck.

Housed in a former convent and run by the Archdiocese of New York’s
Catholic Charities, the foster-care agency described the experiments on
its own Web site, which was abruptly shut down after The Post began
making inquiries.

Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling said experiments at ICC were
halted in 2002. He said he did not know why. Zwil- ling also said he did
not know if any children had died.

An ACS spokeswoman said the agency hasn’t approved any new experiments
since 2000 because the "risks outweighed the benefits." She declined to
explain further. That agency is also reviewing its files on the case.

Jacqueline Hoerger was a pediatric nurse at ICC from 1989 to 1993 and
said the experimentation was going on even back then. "We were taught
that any symptom we saw was HIV-related," said Hoerger, 43. "The
vomiting, diarrhea, wasting syndrome, the neurological side effects -
they were dying. There was death."

She didn’t think doctors were doing anything wrong, however, until years
later, when she tried to adopt two of the foster girls. When she refused
to give the kids the center’s high-powered AIDS cocktails for fear it
was making them sicker, ACS had social workers take the children away
from her.

Advocates for children question the ethics of experimenting on foster
kids - especially those too young to know what’s happening to them.

"The most vulnerable, disadvantaged children are being exploited by
powerful entities and used as guinea pigs as if they were not human
beings," said Vera Sharav from the Alliance for Human Research and
Protection.

The tests were conducted by doctors from Columbia Presbyterian Medical
Center, which was affiliated with ICC until 2002 and reaped the
financial benefits of the research.

"Through these trials, children at the ICC outpatient clinic gained
access to state-of-the-art treatments for HIV," said Annie Bayne, a
Columbia spokeswoman.

ACS policy states it seeks parental consent before a child is enrolled
in a study. If the parents cannot be found, ACS’s medical and legal
divisions, and its commissioner, must all approve.

The condition, however, is that the experiment "offer each participating
child a significant potential benefit, a concomitant minimal risk of
injury or harm," ACS spokeswoman MacLean Guthrie said.

Fire Commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta, who headed ACS at the time of the
experiments, refused comment.

Officials at ICC, which was established in 1989 to house and care for
HIV-infected "boarder babies" left stranded in city hospitals, refused
to talk to The Post.







CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CIVIL RIGHTS ON A
DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NSA / CIA
WIRETAPPING PROGRAM....

CPS Does not protect children...
It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even
killed at the hands of Child Protective Services.

every parent should read this .pdf from
connecticut dcf watch...

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com/8x11.pdf

http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com

Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US
These numbers come from The National Center on
Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN)
Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS

*Perpetrators of Maltreatment*

Physical Abuse CPS 160, Parents 59
Sexual Abuse CPS 112, Parents 13
Neglect CPS 410, Parents 241
Medical Neglect CPS 14 Parents 12
Fatalities CPS 6.4, Parents 1.5

CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING HUNDREDS OF INNOCENT
FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON...


BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF
REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES
TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY
ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION...