Demand Kathleen Sebelius Apologize to Parents of Babies Endangered in Study

Tell Health and Human Services Secretary to Apologize for Unethical Experiment that Exposed Premature Infants to Risk of Death and Blindness and Prevent Similar Failures in the Future

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius should personally apologize to the parents of 1,316 premature infants who were exposed to increased risk of blindness and death as part of a clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health and held throughout the U.S. several years ago because they were not informed of the risks to their babies or the true nature and purpose of the research.

Add Your Name to the Petition to Secretary Sebelius


We, the undersigned, call on you to apologize to each of the parents of the premature infants enrolled in the unethical trial at 23 U.S. medical centers. This apology should be accompanied by a complete divulgence of the previously undisclosed information regarding the nature, purpose, and risks of the research.

We also urge you to take the following actions:

  • Direct the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) to require each participating institution to submit corrective action for avoiding such serious deficiencies in the consent process for future research.
  • Launch an independent investigation into how the HHS system for review and oversight of clinical trials failed so miserably. This should include an assessment of all entities within the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or other HHS agencies that played a role in the review, approval and funding of the study.
  • Determine what system-wide actions are necessary to prevent similar future failures.
  • Identify and suspend any similarly unethical ongoing research involving premature infants that is funded by NIH or any other HHS agency.

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Background


The trial, known as the SUPPORT study, was conducted between 2005 and 2009 at 23 prominent research facilities throughout the country, including the Stanford University School of Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, Brown University, Duke University and University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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1-25 of 16914 signatures
Number Date Name Add a comment
16914 Sat Oct 10 22:46:44 EDT 2015 Jo Ellen Bate
16913 Fri Sep 04 15:02:54 EDT 2015 Leslie Hatcher This violates right to informed consent, and so many other ethical standards set by federal regulation to ensure ethics in research. How is this happening? Why is the NIH funding medical abuse of vulnerable More....
16912 Wed Apr 29 20:48:10 EDT 2015 Anonymous Do not use forced medicalization on any body.
16911 Sun Apr 12 12:25:39 EDT 2015 Anonymous
16910 Tue Apr 07 20:56:15 EDT 2015 Anonymous
16909 Wed Apr 01 16:04:03 EDT 2015 myron gross
16908 Sat Jan 31 07:09:20 EST 2015 Gary Anderson experiment on Kathy!
16907 Thu Jan 29 19:32:20 EST 2015 Rachel cornish I cannot believe this was allowed to happen!! Never heard about this in the news! Was it covered up? Shame on you
16906 Thu Jan 29 19:31:52 EST 2015 Rachel cornish I cannot believe this was allowed to happen!! Never heard about this in the news! Was it covered up? Shame on you
16905 Thu Jan 29 16:31:28 EST 2015 Ryan Burgess
16904 Fri Jan 23 15:55:34 EST 2015 Thomas Johnson
16903 Wed Jan 21 14:23:20 EST 2015 Alicia Villanueva
16902 Wed Jan 07 11:49:59 EST 2015 Lynne Banta
16901 Wed Jan 07 11:49:50 EST 2015 Lynne Banta
16900 Wed Jan 07 11:49:42 EST 2015 Lynne Banta
16899 Tue Jan 06 23:03:04 EST 2015 Catherine white
16898 Sun Jan 04 09:29:46 EST 2015 Rennie Miller
16897 Wed Dec 17 05:22:05 EST 2014 Mary Ann Andruscavage Protect premature babies.
16896 Mon Dec 08 21:13:25 EST 2014 Marissa Gray
16895 Sat Dec 06 17:28:53 EST 2014 Anonymous
16894 Wed Dec 03 19:12:19 EST 2014 Bernadette Webster This kind of behavior seems absolutely criminal.
16893 Wed Nov 19 07:59:39 EST 2014 Cynthia Grim
16892 Tue Nov 11 14:30:52 EST 2014 David Courrejou Imagine how this could have affected your own family!
16891 Tue Nov 11 14:30:40 EST 2014 David Courrejou Imagine how this could have affected your own family!
16890 Mon Nov 10 11:12:25 EST 2014 Tina King
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