A federal ethics panel has concluded that a government-funded experiment on more than 1,300 premature babies misled parents as to how risky the program would be, veteran journalist Sharyl Attkisson tells
Newsmax TV.
"The federal research and all the research groups that took part, including institutions at Duke and Yale [Universities], claim that this was all ethical, nobody was hurt, and so on," Attkisson said Wednesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show."
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"But the government's own ethics body agrees with some of the parents who say the consent was not proper, they were not properly told of the risks, mainly that their children could die — these extremely premature, sick infants could die — as a result of the study if they were entered into it.
"And there are a host of problems, including the babies were put on oxygen monitors as part of the protocol for this study. They were intentionally disabled to get false readings. Again, the research is saying no harm resulted, but the government's own ethics body has questioned that."
The experiments were conducted to learn whether premature babies were more likely to die or become blind if their oxygen levels pumped into their frail lungs were targeted to either a low or high range.
Attkisson — host of the nationally-syndicated news program
"Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson" — said despite the ethics panel's finding, the government isn't backing down and is, in fact, is discrediting the group.
"In typical government fashion, I hate to say it, but instead of apologizing or correcting, the government went after the ethics body, its own ethics body that made these findings and has tried to attack and marginalize the watchdogs of this case," she said.
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