The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

“Tuskegee syphilis study, official name Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, American medical research project that earned notoriety for its unethical experimentation on African American patients in the rural South” (Britannica, 2016). The scientists wanted to see how syphilis affects black people differently than to white people. 400 black men were test subjects for the study without their knowledge. There was already a cure for the disease but they did not want to give the participants the cure because they wanted to see how the disease affects them. This is unethical because it gave African Americans unfair

The John Hopkins Hospital was not the only place that violated people with color in this way. A study was done in Macon County, Alabama with black male patients who had syphilis. This study was designed to find out a history

It was called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.” Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease can be

The job of the “Commission was to identify the basic ethical principles that should underlie the conduct of biomedical and behavioral research involving human subjects and to develop guidelines which should be followed to assure that such research is conducted in accordance with those principles.” (The National Commission for the Protection of Human

In this experiment, researchers took advantage of the lack of medical knowledge that existed within the public. In particular, the Public Health Service conducted the experiment on 600 African American men in order to record the natural history of syphilis. Although the researchers told the men that they were being treated for “bad blood”, which is a term encompassing several illnesses including syphilis, fatigue, and anemia, they did not receive the proper treatment needed to cure their ailments. Men were inclined to participate in the experiment because they received free meals, free medical exams, and burial insurance in turn. However, despite the men consenting to the experiment, there is no proof that verifies that the men were properly informed about the study and its purpose.

However, the lack of informed consent has raised ethical concerns and led to the establishment of guidelines for obtaining consent in medical research. Today health care providers have a responsibility to obtain informed consent from patients before conducting any medical

Through an abundance of medical and historical accounts, Medical Apartheid and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks exemplify how institutional racism has shaped the lives of African Americans. From the beginning of slavery through emancipation, African Americans have overwhelmingly been at the center of unethical medical research. The vast majority of this research has been done unwillingly. For research and experimentation that received the participant’s permission, there were usually hidden elements they were unaware of. Henrietta Washington sites specific examples, ranging from experimentation on plantations to post-emancipation radiation testing on African Americans.

The three principles: Do no harm, informed consent, and voluntary participation were all extremely violated in this experiment. The reason these men participated in this study was only because they were promised by government officials free treatment for syphilis. These men were never informed about the real purpose of the study and they were never told about the dangers they were going to face. They were in many ways taken advantage of. According to the original proposal, the Tuskegee study was to be finished at the end of 6 months.

But unfortunately, the experiment was also never clearly explained to them, they had thought it was just the best possible treatment expected to cure the sickness they might have had. Many unethical practices were evident in this study, in this case, the most important one was informed consent, which is a consent given by a patient to a doctor for treatment with full knowledge of the possible risks and benefits. None of the participants in the Tuskegee study

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is a now-infamous medical study carried out from 1932 through 1972, with the intentions of studying the effects and results of untreated syphilis infection. Although initially valid, the study soon became twisted, and for many years remained a veiled, dark secret of the Public Health Service and the Tuskegee Institute. After forty years of malpractice, its details eventually became public knowledge, leading to the program 's shutting down shortly after these details were published. Later, patients and patient relatives successfully sued for monetary damages, as well as lasting benefits. It remains a critical exemplification of medical misconduct and blatant misuse of medical science.

In the movie “Miss Evers Boys”, Nurse Eunice Evers takes an offer to work with two doctors on a program that was federally funded to treat patients afflicted with the syphilis disease in Tuskegee Alabama. The patients were only men and they agreed to take part in it because of the free treatment. After a while the program ended and money was offered to conduct an experiment. The experiment was the study of the effects of the syphilis disease on these men, specifically African Americans, whom didn’t receive treatment. Nurse Evers finds out from doctor Brodus that the four hundred plus men along with 200 uninfected men who served as controls, will be studied and not treated.

In a time of racism, physicians questioned the natural course and treatment of syphilis. Especially “around 1929, six counties in America had high rates of syphilis—above 20 percent—… In 1930, this foundation surveyed African-American men in Macon Country, Alabama, where Tuskegee is the chief town” (Pence, 192). Tuskegee had one of the highest rates of syphilis in the U.S. and happened to inhibit a majority of black citizens. This unfortunate combination of racism, curiosity in syphilis and the start of the Great Depression led to U.S. Public Health Service to victimize the African American Males who would later be involved what would be known as the Tuskegee Study.

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.

It has now been a quarter of a century, and yet the images and heartache that still evolve when the words "Tuskegee Syphilis Study" are brought up, still haunts people around the world and touches upon many professionals such as social workers, medical examiners, and so forth. Sometimes people hear about this disgusting human experiment in a highly visible way directed to the entire country as an example of what we as a country and people, in general, should not do. This occurred when the study first made national news in 1972, when President Clinton offered a formal apology, or when Hollywood actors star in a fictionalized television movie of the story. On the other hand the audience may become fainter: kept alive only by memories and stories told in the African American community, in queries that circulate over the world wide web and radio talk shows, or even in courses such as this one being taught by social workers, historians, sociologists, or bioethicists. This is neither the first nor the last unethical human experiment done under the human study for the medical purposes umbrella, basically stating it is ok to sacrifice a few people in the name of medical research.

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