Moral Science is the report and recommendations on current ethical standards for the protection of human subjects in research funded by the American government. The report was made public in December 2011. It was commissioned by the president of the United States - a move catalysed by the recent exposure of the ethical violations by American scientists in the study of syphilis among people in Guatemala from 1946 to 1948. American researchers enrolled Guatemalan people in a research study with the intention of exposing them to sexually transmitted diseases without informing them or seeking consent.