Carte Blanche is the alarming tale of how the right of Americans to say "no" to risky medical research is eroding at a time when we are racing to produce a vaccine and treatments for Covid-19. This medical right that we have long taken for granted was first sacrificed on the altar of military expediency in 1990 when the Department of Defense asked
"Carte Blanche is the alarming tale of how the right of Americans to say "no" to risky medical research is eroding at a time when we are racing to produce a vaccine and treatments for Covid-19. This medical right that we have long taken for granted was first sacrificed on the altar of military expediency in 1990 when the Department of Defense asked for and received from the FDA a waiver that permitted it to force an experimental anthrax vaccine on the ranks of ground troops headed for the Persian Gulf. Since then, the military has pressed ahead to impose nonconsensual testing of the blood substitute PolyHeme in civilian urbanities, quietly enrolling more than 20,000 non-consenting subjects since 2005. Most Americans think that their right to give or withhold consent is protected by law, but the passing in 1996 of modifications to the Code of Federal Regulations, such as statute CFR 21 50.24, now permit investigators to conduct research with trauma victims without their consent or event their knowledge. More than a dozen studies since have used the 1996 loophole to recruit large numbers of subjects without their knowledge. The erosion of consent is the result of a U.S. medical-research system that has proven again and again that it cannot be trusted"--
"Urgent, alarming, riveting, and essential,
Carte Blanche reveals that Americans, including African Americans, are still being medically experimented upon without their consent-yet again in research sanctioned by law. Harriet Washington's powerful indictment of ongoing medical coercion unveils a gross violation of our human rights. It is vital reading at a moment when change is so necessary."
-Ibram X. Kendi, author of How to Be an Antiracist and Stamped From the Beginning"Harriet Washington's new book
Carte Blanche, about unsanctioned medical experimentation on Americans, is the most unsettling and alarming work I've read in a long time. This issue is not a relic of history. It's a problem RIGHT NOW. This is required reading to understand the context of this pandemic."
-Jelani Cobb, author of The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress"A tight and informative historical overview of the ways informed consent has been evaded."
-The Washington Post"Medical ethicist and journalist Washington offers considerable evidence of deceptive and devious practices in medical research, which especially impact Black Americans.... An enlightening and well-supported examination of shocking malfeasance."
-Kirkus Reviews"I want to thank Harriet Washington for her wonderful book. As a physician, it was really engaging reading for so many reasons. It encompasses all the human conflicts and challenges we face when working in a fundamentally unjust system."
-Olajide A. Williams, MD, MS, Professor and Chief of Staff of the Department of Neurology at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
