Tuskegee Film Reflection Allison Elliott California Baptist University HSC210-B Ethics in Healthcare Professor Lindsay Fahnestock April 4, 2023 What ethical principles were violated in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study? The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment violated ethical principles of Fidelity, respect for rights and dignity, coercion, justice, integrity, beneficence, benefits, and burdens. The experiment was conducted without the informed consent of participants, who were largely poor and uneducated African American men. They were not told about their diagnosis or given appropriate treatment, even after penicillin became widely available as an effective cure for syphilis. In our textbook, Health Care Ethics: Critical Issues for the 21st Century, …show more content…
If randomization or placebos are used, you can withdraw at any time. Nothing should be concealed, even if it is “harmless” (Baillie et al., 2013, p.302). Overall, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study violated numerous ethical principles, including informed consent, respect for autonomy, and the dignity of participants. In addition, autonomy and paternalism become an issue in caring for individuals who do not have access. The physician is so impacted that they have little time to respect the autonomy and ensure the patient’s rights are upheld, such as in the case of the Tuskegee Syphilis …show more content…
The likelihood of another Tuskegee study being done in the future has decreased significantly. The Tuskegee study would not be possible today, and it would be a grave mistake if this were to happen again or something more harmful; there is a reason why we need to protect the rights of Individuals in scientific experiments. As long as science values discovery, there will be the temptation to seek knowledge. Without doing as little unethical research as possible, there will be no way to get around censorship and
There were six guiding principles the Tuskegee Airmen stuck to. These principles helped them accomplish great things. These principles were: Aim high, Believe In Yourself, Use your brain, Be ready to go, Never quit, and expect to win. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African American Soldiers to enter the US Armed Forces.
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 experiment created an uproar among black people whose compatriots who were used as subjects in the study either lost their lives, became permanently disabled, and others became insane. The whole scandal brought forward issues of racism and medical opinions on race (Brandt, 1978). The Tuskegee study aimed to prove a scientific thought about race and hereditary. The point of interest was primarily on the sexual nature of the blacks. According to the American Medical Association journal, white doctors believed that the Negros from the southern states had an excessive sexual desire that threatened the white society, and in that case, the doctors gave out the reports indicating that blacks lacked
In this case, the informed consent of the subjects was not fully attained as researchers used misinformation to encourage participation in otherwise detrimental studies. In The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, author Rebecca Skloot references a similar case in which a researcher named Chester Southam injected prisoners with cancer cells. Like researchers in the Tuskegee experiments, Southam did not thoroughly explain his research “[as] patients might have refused to participate in his study if they’d known what he was injecting” (Skloot 13). In addition to promoting ethical research, informed consent strengthens the trust between researchers and donors. When researchers seek permission before experimenting on biospecimen, they remain trustable figures to donors.
The men were told that they were ill and promised free care. Offered therapy on a golden platter, they became willing subjects”.(Ogunburg) One of the main ethical issues that was raised in this film and through this study was that the participants were not informed that they had syphilis and what syphilis was. “Deceiving people is unethical” (Babbes, Rubin, 2011, pg. 83) and throughout the study, the participants were being treated unethically because the researchers and the doctors deceived the men into thinking syphilis was treatable and not as serious as it really was by minimizing the impact syphilis had on their bodies. Due to lack of education and economic status the participants in this study were easy to influence.
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 Tuskegee study was an unethical experiment preformed on over 400 African American men with syphilis. The trials led to the remaining living participants to win due to unlawful study. It also led to the death of over 300 participants and children contracting syphilis as well. Today, being 2017, we have came a long way with race and medical research. Not only have we developed as a society and country, but we 've produced laws since then to protect those involved in studies.
1. Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study is an article written by Allen M. Brandt in 1978. In this article, Brandt wants to show that the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was not serious studied about the syphilis, but it was revealed more about racism. He said that, “Failure to place the study in a historical context also made it impossible for the investigation to deal with the essentially racist nature of the experiment” (Brandt). Thus, his quote just showed the offensiveness that racism was created in the society.
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.
Although it was a dramatization of events, the film serves as an education tool for viewers, especially those who are unfamiliar with the history of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Moreover, the film is easily digestible for the audience to learn about the study and to bring awareness to it. Additionally, the film presented factual and almost precise statistics and figures regarding the study (Hermann 150-160, Kalman 6). The approach of telling the story through the perspective of Nurse Evers allows viewers to understand the moral and ethical implications of the study and misconduct of the physicians. By providing context about the patients lives before the study, the film helps to humanize them and allow viewers to empathize with their experiences (Kalman 1-2).
Justice:: In this experiment participant was not getting any justice because during this study there treatment was available then also subject was not getting any treatment of Syphilis and at the end most of the subjects was die and they won’t get any justice. By concluding the Tuskegee study did not respect ethical principles, no diversity, no informed consent, no confidentiality and the researchers coerced the subjects into the study and did not let them have a proper medication to treat the syphilis. Based on my personal thoughts go out to the families that lost their loved ones back then due to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. I personally think that this study should have never been conducted.
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.
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