Pros And Cons Of Tuskegee Experiment

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.

The children are put in danger in order to advance research on the effects of lead. African-Americans during the nineteenth and twentieth century were looked at as less than human beings. The doctors did not believe they needed to get consent about the dangers of performing experiments on African-Americans as unethical. For example, the Tuskegee experiment was unethical, but the doctors wanted to find the effects of syphilis, but with black men and women as test subjects to benefit Caucasians. The Lacks family did not get to understand the significance of what their beloved family member meant to future development of scientist.

This experiment, conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service, was intent to study the natural progression of syphilis in African American male population. The study participants voluntarily participated in the study but the researchers did not properly inform the participants on the availability of treatment or the risks of the disease if untreated. To make the matter worse, the participants were deliberately led to believe that they were receiving treatment from the Public Health Service for free, while the actual treatment was being withheld to achieve the purpose of the research. In today’s point of view, it is surprising that even the federal agency did not respect the dignity of human rights for the sake of research. In Henrietta’s era, even the federal agency did not follow the proper informed consent procedure, and a prestigious institution like John’s Hopkins did not have any regulations or office such as Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) to govern their research protocols to protect human subjects and their rights.

Misunderstanding regarding the details of the Tuskegee syphilis study is common, but the historical accuracy is not as relevant as the strength of the beliefs that formed as a result of the study7. Gamble (1997) argues that roots of the fear of medical exploitation dates further back in history when, the bodies of Black people in Baltimore were taken from their graves for dissection in the 1830s,three female slaves were subjected to an estimated 30 gynecological surgeries each in Alabama in the late 1840s, and folklore describing night riders who kidnapped Black people for use in medical experiments in

Thomas Jefferson, though writing long before the civil war, endorsed a gradual emancipation and colonization of the slaves, rather than outright freedom, concerned with their ability to peacefully coexist with white Americans. One of the more progressive ideas came in the form of giving the former slaves land, wages, and freedom equal to that of any other free man. This, however, was not a popular plan among many of the people of the time, believing that African Americans are inherently inferior to white Americans. If this assumption was true, then obviously we couldn’t integrate them into society, as they wouldn’t work or contribute to society in a meaningful way. The Port Royal Experiment sought to prove the validity of this claim, one way or

The Tuskegee training program was started at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama in 1939 (Moye 2010). In early 1941, the War Department officially established the Tuskegee Airmen (Homan 2002). The Tuskegee Institute in Alabama became the only Army Air Forces training facility for African-Americans due to the Institutes great reputation and political connections (Moye 2010). Unlike all of the other Civilian Pilot Training programs, the Tuskegee program had consisted of only African-American pilot trainees. The Tuskegee Airmen were the very first group of American military pilots that were African-American (Homan 2002).

The Tuskegee experiment in Alabama was not at all humane. The Tuskegee experiment took advantage of hundreds of poor African American men, and violated their rights as humans. The result of the Tuskegee experiment led to a lot of distrust of science and medicine among the African American population. The Tuskegee experiment took place in Macon County, Alabama where there was a great number poor sharecroppers ("The Deadly Deception").

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.

Without the subjects' knowledge or agreement, these tests were conducted with utter disregard for their welfare. The protection of human life and dignity cannot be compromised in the name of scientific progress. They serve as a sobering reminder of the value of sustaining moral standards in all scientific study and the ethical ramifications of these experiments, which are still being argued today. The legacy of the Nazi medical experiments serves as a sobering reminder of the atrocities that may be perpetrated in the name of a belief system and the repercussions of disrespecting human

The U.S Public Health Service Team Department was the one to sponsor the study (Batten). This particular study was done to see the different effects syphilis had on African American males. Throughout this study, there were many things that were done unethically and took many years to be made known. The Tuskegee syphilis study took place at the highly known Tuskegee Institute College, in Alabama in 1932.

The Tuskegee syphilis study -- they recruited hundreds of African-American men with syphilis, then watched them die slow, painful, and preventable deaths, even after they realized penicillin could cure them. The research subjects didn't ask questions. They were poor and uneducated, and the researchers offered incentives: free physical exams, hot meals, and rides into town on clinic days, plus fifty-dollar burial stipends for their families when the men died

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.

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