Purpose Of The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

This chapter reviews the long-term effect the experiment had on the African American population. Specifically, it discusses the effects the experiment has on the relationships between black and the American population and health care professionals. After the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, the African American population became very critical of health care professionals, therefore, they ignored the warnings given about the prevention and epidemic of AIDS. If it was not for the experiment that rightfully made black individuals not trust health care professional the rate of AIDS would have been lower, and less people would have been infected. Overall, the chapter goes to show that it is important for health care professional to be honest and transparent with patients and the population, so that a strong relationship can be formed so that there can be advances in health

The Tuskegee experimental study, which was carried out for a total of forty years from 1932 to 1972, remains one of the biggest and indeed one of the most disgusting scandals in the history of American medicine. More than 400 black men died in Alabama as public officials and doctors watched (Brandt, 1978). The Tuskegee scandal was a scientific experiment which was done using unethical ways and methods that in the end did not result in the production of new information on syphilis. The cure of the subjects who participated in the study was withheld without their knowledge, and consequently, many people died while others were left with permanent disabilities. Newborns were not spared either, and many of them were infected with congenital syphilis.

The experimentation of human cell culture has been a familiar scientific practice for many years; it has helped develop the polio vaccine, tested the infection of several viruses in humans, and has been used to further research on cancer, AIDs, and the effects of radiation. Despite these seemingly miraculous developments in science, many are unfamiliar with the woman behind these discoveries: Henrietta Lacks. In her novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot investigates the life of Henrietta Lacks, a poor African-American tobacco farmer diagnosed with cervical cancer in 1951. Her cells, which were found to be “immortal” (continuously growing in cell culture), were extracted without her consent, and have become one of the

One of the most important concepts in the medical field nowadays is informed consent. Unfortunately, a few years ago this was not the case. The lack of importance given to informed consent can clearly be seen in the novel The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. The novel that tells the story of an African American woman with cancer (Henrietta Lacks) who doctors and researchers took samples of cells (HeLa cells) in her body (without obtaining informed consent from her or her family) to conduct research studies. Chester Southam was a well- respected cancer researcher and chief of virology at Sloan- Kettering Institute for Cancer Research.

For many years, the creation of man-made medicine has gone through many trial and error, progress and complication. One major way in which medicine has thrived was through the form of experiments, some on animals, plants and humans. Unfortunately, certain medical experiments have had drastic consequences. The Tuskegee Experiment was a medical experiment used to study the long-term effects of syphilis of not treated. In 1932, the Public Health Service together with the Tuskegee Institute, began an experiment to record the long-term effects of syphilis which also became a strict medical treatment programs for blacks.

U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee In 1932 an experiment was initiated by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) to record the natural history of untreated, latent syphilis in African American men. The study took place in Macon County, Alabama; it involved 399 syphilitic men as well as 201 healthy, uninfected men to serve as the controlled group. This experiment which was “originally scheduled … to last six months.” as stated by Dr. Taliaferro Clark, Chief of the USPHS Venereal Disease Division, stretched out until 1972.

The code stated that all research should have voluntary participants and consent needed to be obtained. Over the mid-to-late 1900s, more guidelines were formed to guide ethical research such as the Helsinki Declaration, National Research Act, Belmont Report, and Code of Federal Regulations (Resnik 2022; UNLV, 2023). Many of these contained similar themes including informed consent, weighing benefits versus risks, and protection of vulnerable populations (UNLV, 2023). However, there were still research studies that did not uphold these guidelines. This led to the introduction of one general framework known as the Common Rule in 1991 (Resnik, 2022).

In 1932, government doctors conducted a medical experiment known as the Tuskegee study. It took place in Macon County, Alabama. The Public Health Service launched 6 projects in the South in predominately poor black communities. One project took place in Macon County. The doctors were determined to diagnose as many as 10,000 people.

Homework: Unethical Studies The Stanford Prison Experiment was done by Dr. Phillip Zimbardo in an actual prison-like setting. He conducted this experiment to see how people responded to a cruel environment without any clear set of rules. They wanted to test the power of the environment to change and transform otherwise normal peoples everyday behavior. After an extensive series of psychological tests, Dr. Zambardo and his team selected 24 of the most healthy and “normal” people that responded to his add in the paper.

The Tuskegee study of Untreated Syphilis began in 1932, mainly designed to determine the history of untreated latent syphilis on 600 African American men in Tuskegee, Alabama. 201 out of 600 men were non-syphilitic just unknowingly involved in the study as a control group This study is known to be “the most infamous biomedical research study in the U.S history”. Most of these men had never visited a doctor and they had no idea what illness they had. All of the men agreed to be a participant thinking they were being treated for “bad blood” and plus they were given free medical care and meals.

Psychologists have a code of ethical principles to abide by when conduct an experiment, or study involving participants.

A student from the Michigan University (2007) defines Bioethics as an activity which is a shared, reflective examination of ethical issues in health care, health science, and health policy. These fields have always had ethical standards, of course, handed down within each profession, and often without question. Hence, the discussion of this standards is called Bioethics. This discussions takes place in the media, in the academy, in classrooms, in labs, offices, and hospital wards. The conversation is often sparked by new developments, like the possibility of cloning.

An Analyzation of Beneficence Throughout world history, many immoral research studies have been performed on human subjects. The film, Miss Evers’ Boys, does an outstanding job of portraying a study that was implemented in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1932 (Benedetti, Fishburne, & Sargent, 1997). Miss Evers’ Boys creatively depicts the Tuskegee Experiment, of which studied the natural course of syphilis in African American men. Although penicillin became known as a treatment for syphilis during the 1940’s, the subjects remained deliberately untreated by researchers for decades (Burns, Gray, & Groves, 2014). The striking unethical acts performed in this study helped pave the way towards the founding of The Belmont Report, a set of regulations written to protect human research subjects in 1974 (Burns et al., 2014).

This study was referred to as the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis

Before reading this book, I was aware that during World War Two, Japanese army used many Korean and Chinese prisoners of war as test subjects to develop biological weapons that would win the war for Japan. However, I wasn’t aware that patients were taken advantage of as research subjects in a medical environment. Reading this book, I realized that doctors and researchers of the past used patients for research without their consent or knowledge. However, it was not illegal at that time even though it violated patients’ autonomy ethically. I think that doctors had a little different view of patients than they do today because there wasn’t any law to stop them.