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)
