Female politicians demand answers regarding Terre des Hommes' practices

Children adopted through Terre des Hommes in Switzerland were subjected to medical experiments. Now, female politicians want to know who was responsible. 

The Observer exposed questionable practices in early April : Adopted children from India, Korea, and other countries were subjected to medical tests in at least ten Swiss hospitals during the 1960s and 1970s. Upon arrival, they were systematically quarantined. The Observer was able to substantiate these cases with a wealth of documents.

During the same years, the aid organization Terre des Hommes Lausanne also brought a large number of children and young people with heart conditions from crisis regions such as Morocco and Algeria to Geneva. They subsequently underwent open-heart surgery at the Geneva University Hospital, a highly experimental procedure at the time: Several doctors – including the cardiac surgeon and professor Charles Hahn – were themselves members of the aid organization's board. Deaths occurred repeatedly during the operations; at times, almost half of the operations failed, as documents found by the Observer in the Lausanne State Archives reveal.

Edmond Kaiser founded the aid organization Terre des Hommes. He died in 2000.

Source: Keystone

Female politicians ask questions

Now, politicians are addressing these practices of the aid organization. SP National Councillor Barbara Gysi is demanding that the Federal Council investigate the abuse of adopted children for research purposes. In an interpellation, Gysi writes that the abuse of children for medical and pharmacological experiments adds another shocking chapter to the inglorious history of international adoptions in Switzerland.

She now wants to know from the Federal Council how it assesses the oversight and control of the cantons involved at that time. The background: The quarantine that Terre des Hommes systematically placed all adopted children under was not ordered by a canton, as legally required, but by the aid organization itself.

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"Quarantines were illegal" 

National Councillor Gysi is clear: "The quarantines were therefore illegal." The children were taken to the hospital immediately after landing at Geneva airport – whether healthy or sick. There, they underwent X-rays and various examinations. Blood and bodily fluids were also taken from the children and subsequently used for pharmacological tests.  

The National Councillor is demanding that the Federal Council provide support to those affected in accessing their medical records. She also wants to know whether the Federal Council sees any possibilities for "recognition and redress" for those affected. 

Political initiatives in Vaud and Geneva

Similar questions have now been submitted to the cantonal parliaments of Vaud and Geneva. Oriane Sarrasin, a member of the Vaud cantonal parliament, and Matthieu Jotterand, a member of the Geneva parliament (both from the Social Democratic Party), also want answers to open questions. For example, whether the State Council was aware of the quarantines of adopted children and the experimental surgeries performed on children from crisis regions. Both are also demanding support for those affected in accessing their files and are raising the issue of reparations – both symbolic and financial.