Behind Closed Doors: Syphilis Patients Died Untreated

In 1932, the Public Health Service (PHS) began a study in the Tuskegee Institute to record the natural history of syphilis in hopes for finding treatment programs for blacks. It was called “Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in the negro male”. The experiment was conducted on a group of 399 poor and illiterate African American sharecroppers. This disease was not however, revealed to them by the US government. The sharecroppers were told they were going to receive treatment for bad blood. The study that was carried out proved to be one of the most horrifying studies carried out that disregarded the basic ethical principles of conduct, it disregarded human life especially the African American life, blacks were not considered patients but subjects, they were considered as clinical materials instead of sick people. The Tuskegee experiment was identified as “the longest non-therapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history”.

As a result, 28 men died directly due to syphilis, 100 men died due to complication, 40 of the mens wives were infected, and 19 of their children had been born with genital syphilis. The study ended in July of 1972 because of an article in the Associated Press, this story led to a public outcry and caused Heath and Science Affairs to appoint someone to review the study. Throughout the reviewing of the study they declared the study was unethical. (Unknown, http://www.cdc.gov)

Cultural anthropologists usually study by doing participant-observation, which requires the researcher to participate in the studied culture activities as well as observe the daily lives of others. Ideally a cultural anthropologist will have an emic, or an insider’s, perspective to view the society. However, it can be difficult to not view a society with an etic, or outsider’s, perspective. In the film Avatar, Sully is a great example of participant-observation. He learns about the language, customs, and religion of the Na’vi by having Neytiri teach and show him. Sully even becomes a man in the eyes of the Na’vi by going through their right of passage. Similarly, with The Emerald for Forest, Bill is learning the ways of his lost son’s culture. Bill is fluent in the language and learns about customs from what his son, Tommy, explains to him. Bill does participate in the ritual to discover his spirit animal. Avatar can be considered a close representation of anthropology since Sully observes the ways of the Na’vi, participates in their daily life, as well as documenting his

Anthropology is holistic. Humans are social beings more than anything, but with underlying psychological, biological and cultural connotations. The field of anthropology encompasses everything and anything having to do with humankind throughout history. Anthropology attempts to answer the tough questions about the human condition. What influences our actions? How has our species changed? Why do we look down on other cultures or societies? The questions are endless. It is the anthropologists’ job to try and answer them with unbiased subjectivity in order to come analytical conclusions about us as humans. (Kottak 14). To understand humans and the complexity of our cultures anthropology uses knowledge not only from the social and biological sciences, but also the physical sciences and humanities. In order to cover such a wide base of human history and interaction, anthropology itself has been split up into four different subsets that allow us to delve deeper into the understanding of the human condition. What is common throughout all the subsets is the application of knowledge in an effort to solve human problems. Throughout history though, the problems we have faced as humans have not always been the same. In fact they often change from generation to generation. For anthropology to keep up with these changes it’s had to

Anthropologists have always had their discrepancies with the word culture and its background significance. There have been numerous definitions that have filtered through the field, yet not one that everyone can accept or agree with. Franz Boas, an anthropologist in the early 20th Century, and his students, had a difficult time figuring out the objective of what culture is. Culture is about learning and shared ideas about behaviour. Although Boas and his students had a slightly different idea in mind. They ultimately reached a conclusion, a definition of culture in their view that is a contradiction in terms. Boas sates that, “ culture was expressed through the medium of language but was not reducible to it;

The men had to consequently suffer and deal with pus filled sores covering their body, including their mouths, just so the scientists could study the lasting effects of untreated syphilis. Suffering from syphilis was not what the men signed up for, and to them, there seemed to be no way out of the suffering. Even research by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), “Found nothing to show that subjects were ever given the choice of quitting the study.” Even though the men most likely felt trapped, they still had to go on with their everyday lives, which included their healthy significant others.

An anthropologist can be described as someone who studies the biological, linguistic, archaeological and social aspects of a society. They work in the field and document their findings in order to accurately depict the culture of a certain society. In this particular film, Indiana Jones does practice anthropology, but leans more heavily as an archaeologist; or someone who studies past cultures by recovering artifacts and other objects found in the area. Indiana Jones seems to have extensive knowledge of other cultures, myths, legends and languages and though those elements allow one to know more in the field, Jones cannot be labeled as a true archaeologist.

In the early 1900s, the disease syphilis was a concern for the masses especially for individuals in the African American community. It was a common belief that

The Tuskegee Alabama Syphilis Study was a study conducted between the years of 1932 and 1972 by the US Public Health Services (USPHS) on 600 black uneducated males. Of the 600, 399 were in the late stages of syphilis and 201 did not have the disease. These men were chosen because of their lack of education and trust of government agencies to do the right thing in the offer of free medical care in exchange for their services. These men were not told that they had syphilis but that they had “bad blood.” Even when a cure was found, these men were never given the proper treatment for syphilis. The men passed the disease on to their wives and later to their kids. In 1972, a panel concluded that the study be

The study took place in Macon County, Alabama where a large number of African Americans were infected with syphilis. Although the study was aimed at discovering whether blacks react to syphilis in the same way as whites, and determine how long a human being can live with untreated syphilis. Due to the African Americans having lack of education, they suffered tremendously at the hands of doctors from the US Public Health Service. When the study was initiated there were no proven treatments for the disease. So the researchers told African American patients they were being treated for “bad blood.” The treatments for syphilis in the early 1930’s offered more potential harm than benefit for the patient so little harm was done by not treating the men in the study.

“He who knows syphilis, knows medicine” famed early twentieth-century John Hopkins physician Sir William Osler is often quoted as saying (Reverby). The Tuskegee syphilis experiment is one of the worst cases in human history of unethical practices done. Between 1932 and 1972 the U.S. Public Health Service study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in rural African American men in Macon County, Alabama. These men were told that they were receiving free health care from the U.S. government because they had “Bad Blood”. A local term for various illnesses that include syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. The study had six hundred patients in which three hundred and ninety-nine of them previously had the STD. Two hundred and one did not have it at the

In case four, according to the ISB website, they exist to protect research subjects from unethical researchers, "the kind of researchers who would recreate prison situations to see how nasty humans could be to total strangers or would tell their subjects that they had to administer electric shocks to a stranger with heart disease just to see if they would do it... But as any field researcher - that is, the kind of researcher who actually speaks

In the documentary, George Strait tells us the truth behind the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. The study was carried out in Macon County, Alabama between 1932 and 1972 on a large group of black men. About four hundred men were infected with syphilis, a disease sometimes called “bad blood”, while the other two hundred served as the control group. It aimed to discover whether blacks would react to syphilis the same way as whites, and to decide how long a person could live with the disease without treatment. The men that were used in the research were left untreated with syphilis for forty years and suffered hugely at the hands of government doctors.

In order to observe the natural progression of syphilis, the U.S. Public Health Service began what is known as the Tuskegee Study in 1932. The study was held in Macon County, Alabama and there was a total of 600 African American men observed, 399 had latent syphilis and 201 served as an uninfected control group. At the start of the study, there was no cure for syphilis, only medicine available to treat symptoms; however, by 1947, there was a cure, penicillin, but it was never offered to any of the participants, nor were the participants aware that they were not being treated with available drugs. The study lasted for forty years, ending in 1972 and ultimately proving nothing, only once it was exposed by a researcher. In this paper, I am going

On the other hand applied anthropology (anthropology research) does very much consist of one putting their new found knowledge to use. These anthropologists go into a new region with pencil and paper at hand in order to jot down their observations. They wish to acquire new undiscovered traditions or history of a region so that they may formulate a summary. As Vine Deloria Jr. in Custer Died For Your Sins said, “ The summaries are condensed for two reasons. Some condensations are sent to government agencies as reports justifying the previous summer’s research. Others