Tuskegee Syphilis Study Essay

The Tuskegee Syphilis study was unethical because the participants did not give consent to be tested on, the scientists targeted only black men, and many participants died. The experiment was unethical because the participants did not give consent to be test subjects of this study. The participants were promised free healthcare without their knowledge of the experiment. “The subjects of the experiment were observed over a period of several decades, but the nearly 400 men who were infected were not informed of their diagnosis.

Tuskegee Airmen were just some of the many African Americans that fought in WW2.The Tuskegee airmen was an all african american squadron created to fight the germans in WW2, They flew many combat missions during the war, and that earned them a reputation among other pilots including medals from the U.S Air Force. Africans have always played a big role in almost every major U.S wars. They fought in the revolutionary war for our independence through to today. Also a surprising fact you wouldn’t think that African Americans would have a big part in the Civil War but they did; in fact several all black regiments were formed during the time. WW2 was the first time the govenment had formed a black fighter squadron.

Tuskegee Airmen Have you ever wanted to know what it is like to be in mid air warfare? That is what the Tuskegee Airmen did. They were one of the best Airmen the U.S ever had. They flew during World War II and protected U.S bombers. They were one of the most accomplished Airmen and Gunmen the U.S ever had.

In this essay, we will go over the timeline of WWII and the things that occurred while and when WWII was happening. The first thing I will be talking about is the Tuskegee Airmen. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American group that fought in WWII, they were bombers and pilots in the war. The reason why the Tuskegee group was so important to WWII was that they were the first african american group to fight in the air for America, the Tuskegee group broke that barrier of African Americans not being able to fly and bomb in war. Not only were the Tuskegee group men but also women were a part of this group.

First of all, the investigators should have respected the people they were going to conduct by obtaining an informed consent, letting the men decide if they want to be a participant after all. Second of all, medical researchers should not have lied to the people about how long this study was going to last. Third of all, both the risks and the benefits of it should have been stated to them so that the men could decide if this experiment is any beneficial to them or not. Lastly, the participants should have been randomly assigned to the control or experimental group without considering their race, class, and gender. Also, the medical researchers should not have the right to give the favored participants the helpful treatment rather than the riskier

Pellagra is deficiency of nicotinic acid or its precursor, the tryptophan characterized by dermatitis, diarrhea and mental disturbance. Dr. Joseph Goldberger believed that microorganism caused pellagra. For him, the cause of pellagra mainly the food that we eat. It might be cause deficiency of something or toxicity. How did he try to provide backbone for his idea?

One of the many case examples is the Tuskegee syphilis trials that exploited African American men for the use of extensive research purposes. The researchers that were studying untreated syphilis were aware that the African Americans participating in the studied lacked the knowledge to understand what a true clinical study was. They were told that they were receiving free American healthcare, and were not disclosed to the information that they were, in fact, being studied and monitored to find a cure for syphilis. The researchers acted upon the participant’s ignorance to gain insight into syphilis and as stated by Allan Brandt, “When penicillin became widely available in the early 1950’s as the preferred treatment for syphilis, the men did not receive therapy. In fact on several occasions, the USPHS actually sought to prevent treatment”.

(Black, 2013) Numerous reports have been presented by medical professionals regarding this discriminatory issue and will be cited throughout. Poor health and higher than average death rates can be

MENTAL HEALTH: BLACK COMMUNITY Mental Health in the Black community has rapidly grown overtime. According to the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, African Americans are 20% more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population. (Mental Health American p. 3) Mental health disorder is popular in the Black community. Which can include: depression, ADHD and PTSD, which usually stem from either a violent past or background.

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.

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.

In the case of Henrietta Lacks and her family, the mistreatment of doctors and lack of informed consent defined nearly 60 years of the family’s history. Henrietta Lacks and her children had little to no information about serious medical procedures and the use of Henrietta’s cells in research. Henrietta’s cells launched a multibillion-dollar industry without her consent and doctors even took advantage of her children’s lack of education to continue their research without questions: “[Doctor] did not explain why he was having someone draw blood from Deborah… he wrote a phone number and told her to use it for making more appointments to give more blood” (188). Deborah did not have the knowledge to understand the demands or requests the doctors made of her, and the doctors did not inform her explicitly.

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

In 1972, the public became aware of the Tuskegee study, which took place in the southern United States from 1932 to 1972. More than 400 men with latent syphilis were followed for the natural course of the disease rather than receiving treatment. The study continued to deny men treatment even after antibiotics were discovered in the 1940s. This study was all the more infamous because the participants were all poor African-Americans, a disadvantaged group in the southern United States at the time.