Several reports, sent to
Harvard University by
the "Human Beings Study and Protection Office" within FBI of United
States, charged its 14 projects on the study of human beings
carried out in the rural areas of China's
Anhui
Province with severely violating regulations. Xu Xiping,
associate professor with the Public Health School of Harvard
University, conducts 12 out of the 14 projects.
The irregularities mentioned in the reports cover the facts that
the researchers didn't inform the participants of the possible
uncomfortable symptoms emerged during the test, and the language
used in the contract signed between the researcher and the
participants is complicated and so hardly comprehensible to Chinese
farmers, all of which violate the participants' rights to know the
fact.
When contacted by reporters last night, the PR director in the
Public Health School said what they conducted in China is
scientific research, not human body experiments as rumored outside.
She noted the research had been suspended. Sources from the FBI
revealed yesterday the reports were based on a lot of
investigations. So far, no illness case is reported and therefore
the FBI has no plan yet to punish Harvard University.
( April 5, 2002)