The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

Eventually, the public raises concerns after numerous disclosures of human research cases and regulations were implemented. The Belmont Report

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.

“A Question of Ethics” by Jane Goodall and “Animal Research Saves Lives” by Heloisa Sabin presents two sides of the same coin in regards to Animal testing. Thereby, questioning the validity or necessity of animal research and testing today. In “A Question of Ethics” by Goodall she presents a scenery of the living conditions of the animals which are often isolated; posing the ultimate questions of, whether animal research is essential to medical research? Or How many tests are performed only to conform to laws and not out of scientific merit? The Suggestion was made that scientists should explore alternative options, such as testing on cell and tissue cultures.

Ethical guidelines are crucial in research to minimise unnecessary physical, or psychological harm to participants in an experiment. Before ethical guidelines existed in research, several experiments were not conducted ethically. In 1963, American psychologist Stanley Milgram conducted Milgram’s Study of Obedience, which investigated participants ' obedience towards authority. The study demonstrated multiple ethical issues which proved the importance of ethics in research. This report will address the ethical principles that Milgram 's study covered poorly and how they could be modified to improve the study.

The U.S. Congress instituted IRBs. They were designed to safeguard human research participants from potentially dicey, dangerous, or research that does not regard respect and pride (Royse, Thyer & Padgett, 2009). 2. Identify the three types of IRB review.

This article gives multiple examples of unethical experiments performed on Black people one being the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. For 40 years, the Black men in the study were led to believe that they were being treated for “bad blood,” but in reality, they were not given proper treatment for syphilis. The result of withholding treatment from these men led to treatable deaths and their wives and children getting infected. Another unethical experiment mentioned in Medical Experiments on African-Americans in America was the work done by James Marion Sims, who is considered The Father of American gynecology. He performed multiple procedures on black slave women without anesthesia which was available at this time.

-Scientists have a specific responsibility to evade unnecessarily and minimize the pain in the treatments (replacement reduction refinement 3Rs). (Gannon,2007,p.519,para.4). Source 3 The ethics of animal research (Simon festing and Robin Wilkinson) -Implementation of laws that enables people to know more about the researches -The conducted regulated and controlled animal researches in addition to the implementation of the 3Rs and the use of compute models, human cell lines helped to lower our reliance on animals ” Approximately 2.7 million regulated animal procedures were conducted in 2003 in the UK—half the number performed 30 years ago”(Festing &Wilkinson,2007,p.528,para.3). -There exist solution to reduce animal testing like the use of cell culture based tests and Microdosing techniques , the inherent limitation of some non animal tests, and good experimental design and many others techniques like cooling and magnetic resonance thathelps to reduce the use of animals.

The study would ultimately prove that everyone, no matter the color of their skin, is equal when it comes to the disease of syphilis. The intention behind manipulating the men was not for the greater good of society, but instead was for the greater good of Dr. Brodus and Miss Evers. Although the actions of Dr. Brodus and Miss Evers prove to be unethical, I also find the actions to be unprofessional. Miss Evers should have informed the men of the severity of the disease, as well as how the disease is passed from one individual to another. They failed to inform their patients of many of the risks that came along with the disease.

This is known as the Institutional Review Board (IRB), which governs research ethics in studies involving human subjects in order to ensure no ethical violations would occur and the patients were protected. Unfortunately it took these 600 African-American men and their families to help create a review board in order to make sure patients rights in biological experiments such as this one are reviewed to confirm patient’s rights and ethical principals are being followed throughout human

The experiment was executed well. Yet, there are unethical practices happened during the experiment. First, the participants were not fully informed about the experiment. The researchers did not explain to the participants the processes in conducting the experiment. The participants were not informed that they would be arrested by cops in their homes.

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

From 1932-1972, the Tuskegee Study was performed on vulnerable African-American men in Macon County, Alabama. The study, sponsored by the U.S. Public Health Service, was created to learn about the natural ways of syphilis. Syphilis was a disease that was growing at an alarming rate. Researchers longed to understand and treat syphilis. The Tuskegee Study was put into place to find out how the disease progressed.

Although the experimentation of animals has furthered medical knowledge, it should not be allowed because it is brutal and animals are unable to give their approval. In order to do a study on humans it must be authorized by them, where animals are unable to give consent, which strikes questions in the world of science on whether this is morally acceptable. Although animal experimentation can result in saving the lives of millions, many find it to be cruel and unjust. Seeing as animals are unable to speak for themselves, they are still able to express their emotions through their behavior.

If we accept these as the principles underlying ethical review, then it follows that ethical review must be applied to all types of research, beyond just those which contain human or animal participants. This is because the aim of a research project can be harmful to mankind even if that project has no need of human or animal participation in its testing. For example, consider the Manhattan project. This was a research project centred around mathematics, advanced physics and engineering.

Any study that involves subjects concerning human beings should be approved first from the ethics committee before being effected (Chiarelli & Cockburn, 2002). Further, if the paper ever sought for ethical approval is not being mentioned in any section of the article concerning its ethical issues. This is one of the pitfalls noticed at the beginning of the