Elana Levin

Letter to the Editor of the Week!

Big Pharma. The good people who brought you Medicare Part D and unmentionable side effects.

You may have read the post by Rinku Sen on DMIblog a few weeks back of a valiant and oh so benevolent effort on the part of a "federal panel of medical experts" to jumpstart a sequel to the real life horrors of the Tuskegee experiments and the more recent, less well know and equally evil experiments in Philadelphia's Holmesburg Prison.

Well this week's Letter to the Editor of the Week in today's New York Times is written by Sam Rivera Senior Director of Health and Transitional Services at the Fortune Society. I salute him. Not just for this letter but for all the work the Fortune Society does.

Here is his letter:

To the Editor:

Re "Safe Drug Testing in Prisons" (editorial, Aug. 23):

There is no reason to trust the department of corrections or big drug companies with the lives of prisoners. Past experiences do not allow for trust of either institution.

The selection of poor, mostly minority men for experimentation is suspect. Yes, prisoners tend to be among the sickest, most disease-prone people in society because of the way they've been treated in the United States prison system.

The fact that most are men of color and are both mentally and physically ill is no coincidence.

If the drug companies are looking for an informed control group on which to experiment, let me suggest the freshman class of one of the elite universities. See what kind of reaction you get from that!

Sam Rivera
Senior Director
Health and Transitional Services
The Fortune Society
New York, Aug. 23, 2006
* * * * *

Reminds me of a powerful quote from the original Times article.

"It strikes me as pretty ridiculous to start talking about prisoners getting access to cutting-edge research and medications when they can't even get penicillin and high-blood-pressure pills," said Paul Wright, editor of Prison Legal News, an independent monthly review. "I have to imagine there are larger financial motivations here."

Elana Levin: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 10:07 AM, Sep 01, 2006 in Civil Rights | Health Care | Letter To The Editor of the Week | Prisons | Racial Justice
Permalink | Email to Friend