ipl-logo

The Tuskegee Study Of Untreated Syphilis Relate To The Principles

610 Words3 Pages

Reflection: The Ethics of Research
How does the Tuskegee Study of Untreated syphilis relate to the principles in the Belmont Report?
The Tuskegee Study, conducted between 1932 and 1972, was an infamously unethical research study led by the U.S. government. It involved withholding treatment from African American men infected with syphilis, even after effective treatment became available in 1947 (Nix, 2023).
The Belmont Report, published in 1979, was a response to such egregious ethical violations in research and aimed to establish guidelines and principles for the protection of human subjects. It set boundaries between biomedical and behavioral research and the practice of accepted therapy (1979, p. 3). Three basic principles that are relevant …show more content…

4). The Tuskegee Study violated this principle by failing to provide the participants with adequate information about the study and denying them the opportunity to make informed decisions about their healthcare. The participants were deceived, and their autonomy was compromised.
The principle of beneficence requires researchers to maximize benefits and minimize potential harm to participants (The Belmont Report, 1979, p. 5). In the Tuskegee Study, the participants were denied access to appropriate treatment, resulting in unnecessary suffering, disability, and death (Nix, 2023). The researchers prioritized their own interests over the well-being of the participants, blatantly disregarding the principle of beneficence.
The principle of justice emphasizes the fair distribution of the burdens and benefits of research (The Belmont Report, 1979, p. 5). In the Tuskegee Study, the participants, who were primarily African American and economically disadvantaged, were deliberately chosen due to their vulnerable status (Nix, 2023). This selective recruitment based on race and socioeconomic factors violated the principle of justice by subjecting a marginalized population to exploitation and denying them access to appropriate …show more content…

The Tuskegee Study had a profound impact on the trust of marginalized communities, particularly African Americans, in medical research and healthcare systems. The most recent evidence showed that people of color were more reluctant to get the COVID-19 vaccine than White people were, and that this relationship was mediated by perceived discrimination and medical mistrust (Morgan et al., 2022). According to a national Pew Research Center survey conducted in 2020 found that 54 percent of Black adults said they would “definitely/probably get a COVID-19 vaccine if it were available today,” compared to 74 percent of White adults and 74 percent of Hispanic adults of any race (2022). The Tuskegee Study’s exploitation and mistreatment of vulnerable African American community certainly contributed to a deep-rooted skepticism and mistrust that still resonates today. Rebuilding trust and addressing healthcare disparities require ongoing efforts to promote transparency, inclusivity, and equitable access to

Show More
Related

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

1631 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More

Summary: The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

1705 Words | 7 Pages

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

Read More

Tuskegee Airmen Essay

948 Words | 4 Pages

Today it is difficult to conceive that an “experiment” was needed to prove that African-Americans are as capable as whites, especially in view of General Colin Powell, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the black astronauts and the veterans of Korea, Vietnam, and The Persian Gulf, all of whom have made outstanding contributions in military service. The army didn’t know it at the time, but they had produced in the Tuskegee Airmen a powerful force that indeed worked to destroy the racial barriers the military and the nation were so reluctant to pull down on their

Read More

Why Is Henrietta Lacks Unethical

1416 Words | 6 Pages

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

Read More

Linda Villarosa Under The Skin Sparknotes

711 Words | 3 Pages

In Chapter 2, Villarosa researched the history of healthcare in the United States and found a study about Tuskegee Syphilis Study. During this time of study, Black men were left untreated for syphilis without the consent of the participants in order to study the disease. Villarosa argued that this study specifically created a mistrust of the healthcare system among the Black community. Unfortunately, this medical racism continues to exist today. Lastly, Villarosa also expanded on contemporary research about the impact of racism on health outcomes

Read More

Summary Of Letter From Birmingham Jail

891 Words | 4 Pages

All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality.” As a consequence without justice, the persons affected by unjust laws will never feel racial

Read More

Ethical Directives And Practices Of The Tuskegee Scandal

552 Words | 3 Pages

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

Read More

Confidentiality In Tuskegee Studies

90 Words | 1 Pages

Based on our past history (e.g., the Tuskegee experiment) it is now crucial to apply confidentiality and informed consent in studies, especially human subjects. Therefore, harm can reduced as much as possible. I feel the past history is a lesson that social scientists should avoid in studies. All human subjects are required to understand the risk factors and procedures in a study they are participating in. If they require confidentiality, researchers should also agree.

Read More

Tuskegee Study

770 Words | 4 Pages

Brandt, in his essay Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, “To preserve the subjects ' interest, Vonderlehr gave most of the men mercurial ointment, a noneffective drug … This required Vonderlehr to write frequently to Clark requesting supplies. He feared the experiment would fail if the men were not offered treatment.” The test subjects were illiterate sharecroppers who thought they were receiving medicine for the so called “bad blood”. Vonderlehr writes “it would have been impossible to continue without the free distribution of drugs because of the unfavorable impression made on the negro.”

Read More

Essay On Tuskegee Study

546 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment Essay

520 Words | 3 Pages

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.

Read More

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

808 Words | 4 Pages

Public Health Service (USPHS) sponsored an observational study of syphilis in black men in Macon County, Alabama (The Tuskegee Syphilis Study). Despite the cure for syphilis being discovered in 1943, the experiment was carried on for almost 30 more years. Letting these African Americans suffer from syphilis was a horrible and unnecessary thing to do when there was already a cure. James Byrd also faced the issue of undeserved treatment because of ethnicity. On June 7th, 1998 in Jasper Texas, three white supremacists murdered Byrd by dragging him behind a truck for three miles on an asphalt road.

Read More

Institutional Racism In Medical Research

1632 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Medical Research Experiment

922 Words | 4 Pages

Medical Research has the potential to advance society and make life better for everyone in it. However, the ends cannot justify the means; the rights of the subjects of research cannot be violated no matter the possible benefit to mankind. Despite this, time and time again, it has been very easy for, at least allegedly well-meaning scientists to violate the rights of their research subjects because they wanted to help society as a whole. Such experiments were not performed in secret by a minority of scientists; they were often done “by respected investigators at leading medical institutions and were published in medical journals (Scandals and Tragedies 3). " It is vital that we understand the circumstances of these experiments and why they happened so

Read More

Ethical Principles In The Film 'Miss Evers Boys'

1121 Words | 5 Pages

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

Read More

More about The Tuskegee Study Of Untreated Syphilis Relate To The Principles

Related Topics

Open Document