Damages awarded for drug-trial death

Press, 13 May 1987, Page 4

Damages awarded for drug-trial death

NZPA-Reuter New York A federal judge has awarded more than SUS7OO,OOO to the daughter of a civilian mental patient who died as a result of secret United States army drug experiments. “The United States negligently caused the death of Harold Blauer in 1953 and therefore is liable to his estate for his wrongful death,” said Judge Constance Baker Motley, ruling in favour of Elizabeth , Barrett in the death of her father. Blauer, a ranked tennis professional, aged 42, died while being treated for depression at the New York State Psychiatric Institute in Manhattan. In 1975, the Army acknowledged for the first time that he died after

being given injections of a mescaline derivative which the hospital was testing in an Army chemical warfare experiment Judge Motley said the case was “a sad episode in the conduct of the United States Government and a personal tragedy for an unsuspecting victim and his family.” The Judge described Blauer as a guinea pig who was told only that the drugs were for "diagnostic and therapeutic purposes rather than solely for experimental purposes.”

The Judge castigated the United States Government for perpetrating a fraud on, the victim’s family by failing to disclose the facts of the case and.seeking to cover them up.