We've all been following the Ayres, Levine, Bradley, Foulk (Napa, CA state hospital chief), and Gajdusek cases. I thought I'd post another link here bringing us back to Gajdusek. I have been absolutely fascinated and repulsed about what I've read about the man--so many ethical questions about how we now view the work of these often great minds.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/the-fall-of-a-family-man-1308277.html
August 1996
"The story of Daniel Gajdusek, the brilliant son of poor East European immigrants to the United States who was awarded the
1976 Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology, is more than the rags-to-riches rise and fall from grace of an eminence grise. His supporters - and there are many, including leading scientists and the children he brought up as his own, some of whom hold high-ranking government and diplomatic positions in their own countries -
say he is the victim of the preoccupation with child abuse that has led to notorious scandals and miscarriages of justice such as Cleveland and the Orkney Isles cases here and Wenatchee in the US.
Others say Gajdusek is nothing more than a sex tourist who used his status as world-renowned scientist as a cover for his visits to exotic locations to procure children for his own pleasure. Then there are those of a more liberal persuasion who believe that our own hang-ups about sex should not be allowed to distort the very different cultural attitudes to sex displayed in other countries."
and
"For example, on 10 September 1961, while on Koror Island in the Pacific Ocean, he wrote: "
I would, at this moment, have every youth sleep with his sister, get seduced by his older brother and male teacher, practise with his male and female cousins, aunts, uncles and teacher and maid - anything! - only to know sex as fun and frivolity, as rhythm and passionate play - from an early age - from the very onset of puberty."
and
"Dr Gajdusek was arrested and spent the night in jail before being released on $350,000 bail. He is forbidden from travelling outside the state and has not commented in any detail on the allegations,
other than to tell the Washington Post that he was as much a paedophile "as Jesus Christ and Mother Teresa, who also are unmarried and love children".
and
Reports in American newspapers say Gajdusek brought the first child over some time in the mid-1960s, and that their numbers grew rapidly.
He did not adopt them officially [ETA, finally answered that question] and the children entered the United States on study visas, which require little more than a sponsor who agrees to cover all costs.
and
"Larry Foust, of the FBI in Baltimore, said last week that the agency first became interested in him after an
inquiry into child 
on the Internet in the late 1980s. In October, the Maryland Circuit Court will decide if he is an innocent, well-meaning eccentric whose old age and lifetime achievements have been destroyed by witchhunting authorities, or a paedophile masquerading as a dedicated scientist. A more pertinent question, which the court will not address, is this:
how could the US Immigration authorities and social services permit so many young, foreign children to enter the country, largely unchecked, for so many years?"
Multiple entries in his private journals follow.
much more at link--a fascinating read.
From another source:
http://www.answers.com/topic/daniel-carleton-gajdusek
"
Gajdusek was charged with child molestation in April 1996, based on incriminating entries in his personal diary and statements from a victim. He pleaded guilty in 1997 and, under a plea bargain,
was sentenced to 12 months in jail.
After his release in 1998, he was permitted to serve his five-year unsupervised probation in Europe. He never returned to the United States and lived in Amsterdam, Paris, and Tromso.
and
"Gajdusek died December 12, 2008 in Tromsø, Norway, at the age of 85. He was working and visiting colleagues in Tromsø at the time of his death."
I think that due to the time lapse, many have forgotten this important case. It bears many similarities to some of the others we are discussing. We have a man, a brilliant man, who ordered his life in such a way, to have a steady stream of boys and young men at his disposal. He minimized the sexual contact, even calling it playlike and healthy. (Sidenote: NAMBLA has a piece on Gajdusek but it has been taken down). He was able to garner awards and praise for his philanthropic work with children and develop a public reputation as an upstanding model for males. In fact, he duped many highly respected people into defending him against even overwhelming evidence.
One has to wonder what has become of the young men he raised who are now said to hold high ranking positions of power in far-flung countries? If they truly look back on their relationship with their "father" as one filled with sex-fueled love, what atrocities might they be committing in the name of love and/or play? One has to also wonder how many children and teens he victimized after we released him unsupervised on Europe in 1998. Ten years in a long long time and pedophiles are fast.
Gajdusek's legacy truly haunts me. I'd love to hear Charlie Rose set Ayres, Levine, and Bradley at a table (leg irons, please) for a thorough discussion of this Nobel Laureate. No doubt he is their hero.
