The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the federal government must continue to provide medical care to veterans exposed to chemical and biological-weapons experiments as well as any new information that may affect their health, Metropolitan News-Enterprise's Kenneth Ofgang reports. The experiments took place between 1942 and 1975.
The panel said the fact that care is available through the Department of Veterans Affairs is insufficient basis to not compel the government to provide care to the entire class of test subjects.
The panel also found a basis for compelling medical care in a 1988 military regulation finding that test subjects have a duty to be warned even if their participation in the research is now over. The military had argued that the regulation only apply prospectively.
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