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Essay On The Tuskegee Experiment

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What was the Tuskegee experiment? This experiment was one that used hundreds of poor, African- American men that had syphilis, a sexually transmitted infection, but the men didn’t know they had it. This started in 1932 and lasted for 40 years. When the study was started, there was no known cure for the infection. Eventually, in the 1940’s scientists discovered a drug that would cure the infection, called Penicillin. However, even though scientists had discovered that penicillin was a cure for syphilis, they still continued to tell the men they just had “bad blood” and gave them placebos. As the men started to die or develop some uncomfortable symptoms of the infection, researchers did not provide any care that would help them heal or even feel …show more content…

(Nix, History.com) The superiors decided to form a committee to evaluate what was going on in the study. The conclusion was that the researchers were allowed to continue the study so they could track all of the men until they have all died. Another reason this study was so unethical is because people outside of the study knew what was going on and didn’t stop them. According to cdc.gov, local African American and white physicians were recruited not to treat the men. Autopsy and physician assessments were done at local hospitals. This means a bunch of Tuskegee Institute faculty and staff were involved in the study. The fact that these doctors knew what was going on and didn’t do anything to stop the situation means they were not respecting their rights to be doctors, if you ask me. A doctor is obligated to help anyone they can and these doctors just turned their heads and looked the other way. Though this is one of the reasons the study was unethical, the main reason became known in 1940 when penicillin was discovered to cure syphilis and the researchers still did not offer the medicine to the test

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The PHS (Public Health Service) department recruited local doctors and nurses who would not treat the men with syphilis (Clinton). They had white physicians within their department administer the study (Batten). There were 400

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Due to their lack of not being health care treated and not understanding the meaning of medical terms, they were not informed about syphilis. Syphilis was given the name “bad blood”, which is what the “black people of the rural south used to describe a variety of ailments” (p. 1501). They persuaded these black men to be a part of the study by offering them free medical care, food and transportation. The study furthered on than the intentional six to nine months planned, and so both the Alabama state health officer and Macon County Board of Health made a deal with the PHS to let the study continue, as long as the men who were found with syphilis were treated. The PHS did not give the men the treatment they needed to be effective because that would put an end to their study, even when there was options such as Penicillin.

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In Tuskegee, Alabama a group of men were chosen for an experiment involving the observation of how syphilis occurs in black men and its long term non-treated consequences. At the time of the experiment, the only treatment that was available was a heavy metal therapy; however, the scientists believed it was doing more harm than good. Therefore, they did not inform the men about the treatment and distracted them with basic incentives like hot meals and transportation. When penicillin, a cure for syphilis, was discovered the doctors made the decision to shield the cure away from the men. This is proof that scientists are

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Miss Evers' Boys Ethics Paper. The Tuskegee Syphilis research, which started in the 1930s, was an unethical prospective research that focused on the disparities between white and black males. In order to test the impact of untreated syphilis, black men and their families were mistreated in this study. One of the worst injustices in American history, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study involved volunteers who knew very little about the illness or the study.

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In order to have a correct understanding of syphilis’ development, the USPHS ensured that the subjects did not receive treatment from other sources. This inhumane experiment lasted for fifty years until the Assistant Secretary for Health and Scientific affairs appointed an Ad Hoc Advisory Panel to review the study. Soon, it was revealed to the public that the victims did not receive adequate information to provide informed consent. The Panel also discovered that researchers did not offer the victims treatment even when penicillin became the cure for syphilis in 1947. The doctors

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In addition to this misinformation, patients were not provided with a way out of the study, effectively dooming them to a life without treatment for the disease. This, of course, contradicts the principles of non-maleficence, as the patients were made to suffer with their ailment throughout the study, even though they could have been easily treated. Although Penicillin was the standard treatment for syphilis by the mid-1940s, participants’ in the Tuskegee Study were denied access to it (Walker, C. (2009). The study infringes on the principle of justice in major aspects.

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The doctors involved in the study, “...had allowed hundreds of African-American men with syphilis to go untreated so that scientists could study the effects of the disease.” (Waxman, Olivia B.) This shows how the patients were mistreated and that the doctors didn’t care about their health. The doctors had allowed, “...200 or so... to suffer the disease and its side effects without treatment, even after penicillin was discovered as a cure for syphilis...” (Waxman, Olivia B.)

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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.

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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.

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Knowing the poor sharecroppers would never find another opportunity to get free medical treatment, researchers were sure that most subjects would keep on coming back if they believed that they were being treated. Throughout the course of the study, numerous test subjects died as a result of not being treated even after the creation of penicillin. In 1972, the Tuskegee Syphilis Ad Hoc Advisory Panel investigated the experiment. The panel ultimately concluded that the study needed to be

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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.

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

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