Amazon Tribe Broods Over Poached Blood

An Amazon tribe is bilious after scientists took blood samples in exchange for medicine they never got, the Times reports. Doctors collected DNA from the Karitiana Indians in the late '70s and again in 1996, and then sold it to researchers for $85 a pop. But now the once remote tribe has made contact with the Western world, and wants compensation.

Researchers say the Amazonians' tight-knit populations allow for detailed study of genetic diseases. Brazilian doctors promised the Karitiana medicine for their blood, which has religious significance to the tribe. But the supplies never showed up, and the blood was shipped to a distribution firm based in New Jersey, as members discovered to their chagrin recently on the Internet. (More Brazil stories.)