http://www.newstarget.com/z020717.html

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published October 11 2006
Prominent doctors used elderly patients for medical experimentation

(NewsTarget) Four prominent doctors at Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot and the
Hartzfeld Geriatric Hospital in Gedera -- both located in Israel -- were
arrested this week on suspicion of using elderly patients as the subjects of
hundreds of illegal experiments.
The four doctors are suspected of wrongful death through negligence, abuse
of helpless victims, aggravated assault, fraud, violation of a statutory
obligation and interference in an investigation.

A report from the Health Ministry concluded that that the doctors violated
the law by experimenting on patients who did not provide consent or were
mentally incapable of providing consent.

In addition, some of the experiments had no medical or scientific benefit.
Further, some of the alleged experiments were conducted on patients without
consent -- even though some senior doctors at both hospitals warned the
accused that the experiments being conducted were illegal and unethical.

The report exposing the alleged experiments -- which was released by a
Health Ministry inquiry committee -- revealed that illegal and unethical
experiments were conducted over several years in a systematic manner on
thousands of elderly patients.

The report also revealed the fact that 12 patients died either during or
shortly after one of the experiments. However, the incident was not reported
to the Health Ministry or investigated, which is a direct violation of
Israeli law.

One of the doctors was released, a second was put under house arrest, and
the final two doctors were given an extensional remand for three days as a
result of the arrests. Police performed searches of all four suspects and
confiscated documents from their homes.

As a result of the experiments, at least four doctors became known as
geriatrics experts, a label given to each on the basis of research based on
the alleged experiments. Some of the doctors also submitted articles to
medical journals in Israel and abroad on the basis of the experiments.