Medical experiments were conducted on children as young as three months old in Irish mother and baby homes. Vaccines were tested on them, as was baby formula by companies now in the GSK (Glaxo Smith Kline) group.
Nearly 1,500 children were experimented on during a 50-year period until 1973. This was without the consent of their parents. Some survivors grew up wondering why they had so many vaccination marks – no one told them what had happened or what drugs were involved.
Others have been able to find out more and to contact GSK for information – the giant pharmaceutical company has said it will not proactively contact the people involved to give them the information, for “ethical reasons”. Many are still in the dark.
On foot of the 2021 report by the Commission into Mother and Baby Homes, Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman promised financial redress for survivors and pressed church leaders and GSK to pay. Irish Times journalist Arthur Beesley has now learned that GSK has no intention of paying reparation and that for the pharma company in its discussions with Government, the matter is closed.
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As the Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme makes its way from Dáil to Seanad, and observers query elements in the Bill, it is clear the issue of the medical trials and reparation for survivors has been left behind.
Mari Steed, who was born in the Bessborough Mother and Baby Home, Cork, in 1960 and adopted by an American family in 1961 tells of when she realised she had been part of medical trials as a baby. Also contributing to this episode of In the news is Prof Conor O’Mahony, who from 2019 to 2022 was special rapporteur on child protection and whose 2021 report outlined the “extremely invasive” trials on babies. Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon and Suzanne Brennan.
