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Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

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Medical studies today have many benefits — from research to observe diseases and conditions, to experiments to discover cures for deadly ailments — which ultimately aid the public’s health and well-being. However, not even a century ago, rules and protocol that helped run tests safely did not exist. The “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” shaped the foundation of modern medical ethics that protect people involved in clinical trials today. The Tuskegee Experiment lasted for forty years, from 1932 to 1972 (“The Tuskegee Timeline”). Run by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS), the research took place at the Tuskegee Institute, while the subjects of the study were chosen from Macon County, Alabama (“About …show more content…

"The United States government did something that was wrong — deeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens... clearly racist." Even before the speech was given, there was fierce public disapproval at the study. The trial was widely regarded as unethical and racist by both experts and the general public (Brookes and Paul e12). There was widespread cry that the Tuskegee study was outrageously immoral and cruel, even deceiving towards the victims. The HEW declared the study "ethically unjustified" (Heintzelman). There was strong public opinion not only at the time of the halt of the experiment, but afterwards, also. The Libertarian Party demanded that politicians and all people responsible for the experiment be prosecuted ("About the USPHS Syphilis Study"). Additionally, there was — and still is today — ample mistrust of the government and doctors by blacks even after the study …show more content…

The National Research Act was passed in 1974, declaring that any federally funded and proposed experiments involving human subjects must be approved by an Institutional Review Board for Human Participants, better known as IRBs (Heintzelman). Furthermore, the “Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research” was created in 1979 by the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research (“About the USPHS Syphilis Study”). It defined fundamental principles and ethics when a research experiment was held, making sure that future participants of clinical trials would be protected by laws. Some principles included giving subjects the right to be informed of the procedures and also the ability to leave the experiment if they found no improvement in their condition. As the government rebuilt trust with the public, more studies — this time with grounded laws to safeguard subjects — began to pop up across the States, all beginning with a first stage of informed, voluntary

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There are over 100 million animals harmed in US research labs every year. Ninety- two percent of the tests conducted on animals do not actually work when used on people (animal testing). Why use animals at all when researchers can just use humans...incarsaterated humans. In the book “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” researchers used HeLa cells on men in prison to test the effects of the cells in the human body. Chester Southam put an ad in the Ohio State Penitentiary newsletter for twenty-five volunteers for HeLa cells research.

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Those who live on a very low income, who are from developing countries or are part of the lower classes agree to participate for financial reasons, and usually were not fully informed about all of the risks and side effects (Moreno). In the United States the more vulnerable segments of the population have continuously been the subjects of medical experimentation, but African Americans, including children, assumed a unbalanced burden and suffered the most brutal, and invasive of the medical experiments. In the article written by Jonathan D. Moreno, “Master Sergeant James B. Stanley volunteered to be a subject in a study advertised as developing and testing measures against chemical weapons, but Stanley was never told that the clear liquid he drank for the test contained a psychoactive drug, nor was he debriefed or monitored for the hallucinations that followed, nor did he understand the source of the emotional problems that disrupted his personal life, leading finally to his divorce in

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Instead, she argued that it was against the law for her to forcibly examine him without consent, and even brought up other examples when it’s relevant in the medical world. Lauren however, was extremely distraught by this and decided to give a call to Hospital Ethics. Michele then thought back on instances where one's body didn’t really belong to them. She thought about Dr. J. Marion Sims, who conducted experimental surgeries on enslaved women, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment, when for forty years, black men men were abducted to be “treated”, but instead were experimented on and watched, Dr. Albert Kligman who “biopsied, burned and

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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

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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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In the context of medical research, informed consent provides individuals with the opportunity to accept or decline involvement in research, and thereby adheres to their right to choose. Obtaining consent from donors is not limited to simply seeking permission, but involves explaining the nature and consequences of research in an honest and understandable manner. When this aspect of informed consent is ignored, unethical research ensues. For example, during the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments, US Public Health researchers studied the progression of syphilis in African American men, under the false pretense of curing their “bad blood”. Though a treatment of penicillin was available at the time, researchers idly observed as subjects died painful, preventable deaths.

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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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However this experiment did allow white individuals the opportunity to be discriminated against, which was something they had never experienced. Also, none of the people stood up for each other, which was one of the goals going into the experiment. Because of the results of the adult-aimed experiment, this should remain an experiment for children who have not yet formed their ideas and perceptions of

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The ethical principles that were transgressed in the Tuskegee study were beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy, and justice. I believe these ethical principles were transgressed because “medical treatment was deliberately withheld to study the course of the untreated disease” (Polit & Beck, 2022, p. 61). In no circumstances should a participant's basic ethical principles be violated/taken away from them just for a study to get results. Beneficence is defined as “the act of doing good” (Butts & Rich, 2023, p. 426) and I believe in this study it was transgressed because the complete study was based on the act of doing wrong. From the very beginning, the African American men were lied to about what the study was.

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

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