Fact Check

Texas Scientists Given Green Light to Use Sex Offenders for Medical Research

Has Texas passed a law allowing incarcerated sex offenders to be used as subjects for medical experimentation?

Published Nov. 10, 2013

Claim:

Claim:   Texas has passed a law allowing incarcerated sex offenders to be used as subjects for medical experimentation.


FALSE


Example:   [Collected via e-mail, November 2013]


I've read that Texas is sending sex offenders to hospitals to be used in medical research. Is this true?

 

Origins:   On 8 November 2013, the National Report published an article positing that the state of Texas had passed a law allowing incarcerated sex offenders to be used as subjects for medical experimentation:



Hundreds of violent and predatory sex offenders are being transferred from multiple correctional facilities all over Texas to a specialized medical research facility where they will spend the rest of their lives being used as subjects

in medical experimentation and testing.

In a bold move Texas congress passed a bill in early October to give researchers permission to use the most violent, predatory, repeat sex offenders as the first human subjects who will be used in more cutting edge clinical inquiries.

The facility which is located in Sutton County is being praised worldwide as bringing medical research to the next crucial level. Several researchers are clamoring to bring their talent to the practice. Having the opportunity to work with human subjects will give scientists the opportunity to develop sophisticated new treatments and surgical procedures that will eventually be saving lives.


By the following day links and excerpts referencing this article were being circulated via social media, with many of those who encountered the item mistaking it for a genuine news article. However, the article was just a bit of satire from the National Report, a web site that publishes outrageous fictional stories such as "IRS Plans to Target Leprechauns Next," "Boy Scouts Announce Boobs Merit Badge," and "New CDC Study Indicates Pets of Gay Couples Worse at Sports, Better at Fashion Than Pets of Straight Couples."

The National Report's (since removed) disclaimer page notes:



National Report is a news and political satire web publication, which may or may not use real names, often in semi-real or mostly fictitious ways. All news articles contained within National Report are fiction, and presumably fake news. Any resemblance to the truth is purely coincidental.

Last updated:   10 November 2013

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.

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