My Reflection On My Life At Bangladesh Fueled Passion Of Public Health

Have you ever wondered where a doctor’s method came from? Or so much to even, think who came up with the original idea? America has an interesting medical history, or as I like to call them experiments. Some of those experiments were a positive asset to the history, but others were horrifying. One of those horrifying events would be Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. James H. Jones, the author of “Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment”, covered a book on the historical event. The study was for how the African American male is affected by untreated syphilis. But through the evolvement of the experiment, it became about the neurological aspect. It also depicts the American Government for its untrustworthiness in the health care world.

This essay examines the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, wherein for 40 years (1932-1972) hundreds of black men suffering from advanced syphilis were studied but not treated. The 40-year study was controversial for reasons related to ethical standards; primarily because researchers knowingly failed to treat patients appropriately after the 1940s validation of penicillin as an effective cure for the disease they were studying. To explore the role of the racism in the controversial study, this essay analyzes the article written by Allan M. Brandt.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was an unethical prospective study based on the differences between white and black males that began in the 1930’s. This study involved the mistreatment of black males and their families in an experimental study of the effects of untreated syphilis. With very little knowledge of the study or the disease by participants, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study can be seen as one of the worst forms of injustices in the United States history. Even though one could argue that the study was originally intended to be for good use, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was immoral and racist because only poor, uneducated black males were used in experiment, the participants were not properly informed of their participation in the

I’ve come to understand why having access to institutions or facilities that can provide adequate sight and vision treatments is necessary. Being in America we’re blinded by an abundance of luxuries. We take the small things in life for granted and feel as if they should be handed to us with a silver spoon. What about the child in India who doesn’t have the opportunity to visit care centers to examine his or her eyes? What about the homeless and orphan children in Russia that can’t afford to see a doctor about their blurred vision? Who’s going to help out the child of the native lands that lives too far from the nearest medical care clinic but just severely injured his or her eye? All of these things are real life situations and real life problems that less developed countries face as they struggle to obtain funding or even educators who can routinely and professionally provide the necessary

My sophomore scholar's research project thoroughly investigated the history of medical abuses against African-Americans. I researched racism in medicine dating back to slavery through the 1990’s, and I found astounding medical injustices against the African-American community. My

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment was an infamous clinical study conducted between 1932-1972 in Macon Country, Alabama by the U.S Public Health Service. The purpose was to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in rural African American men who thought they were receiving free health care from the U.S government; about four hundred African American men were denied. The doctors that were involved in this study had a shifted mindset; they were called “racist monsters”; “for the most part, doctors and civil servants simply did their jobs. Some merely followed orders, others worked for the glory of science” (Heller) The men that were used for the study got advantage of, especially those

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was the experiment conducted by US public health service among 600 black men to study about the disease named syphilis from 1932 to 1972 (CDC,2016).The participants were poor rural African-American living in Macon County ,Alabama. The study was done to find out the effects of untreated syphilis on those men. The participants were introduced the disease with the name -Bad Blood by the researchers(Jones,p.5). The researchers ran the experiment for over 40 years. During this period, the participants were kept unknown about the causes and treatment of the syphilis .The treatment of syphilis was found but the researchers did not apply on the participants(Tuskegee,2016). The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was unethical and

The Tuskegee syphilis study highlighted the effects of untreated syphilis in African American males by withholding syphilis treatment that was available to these men. In addition, Tuskegee syphilis study demonstrated how the participants’ rights were taken for granted or even minimized in order to obtain information on how the human body was affected by untreated syphilis. This study allows one to view how the ethical rights were violated and allows for guidelines to be established preventing future occurrence.

Though it has been apparent that people of color have been treated as a subclass within the medical field for centuries; as was brought to light in The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the recognition of forced hysterectomies and sterilizations of African American women in the 20th century and, to “The Negro Project” which worked to reduce the African American population through eugenics (Feagin & Bennefield, 2014). With even these three examples it is clear that the medical field has played a large role in creating both psychological and physical disadvantages and trauma for minority groups in America. Yet, it seems to be a subject that many professionals refuse to address. A meta-analysis conducted by Mayberry, Mili and Ofili found that,

Deadly Deception is a documentary about one of the most, if not the most controversial human experimentation studies conducted in America. This film chronicles the Tuskegee experiment which began in 1932 and was carried out within a forty year time span of consistent experimentation. This study’s primary goal was to observe the effects of untreated syphilis on the human body over the course of a year for the sole purpose of eradicating the disease, but when it was discovered that a large proportion of the study’s population had syphilis, the objectives for the study changed. This study took place in Macon County, Alabama with 600 black male participants, 400 of which were infected with syphilis while the other 200 participants occupied the control (without syphilis). At the

This book revealed on how racism is involved to the development of American medicine and on how adversely affected African American lives and health (Gamble, V., N., 2014). To include, Tuskegee syphilis study were researchers recruited hundreds of African-American men with syphilis and watch them die slow in a preventable death, even when researchers realized it could be cured taking penicillin. fourthermore, Mississippi

The book BAD BLOOD: THE TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS EXPERIMENT by James H. Jones was a very powerful compilation of years of astounding research, numerous interviews, and some very interesting positions on the ethical and moral issues associated with the study of human beings under the Public Health Service (PHS). "The Tuskegee study had nothing to do with treatment … it was a nontherapeutic experiment, aimed at compiling data on the effects of the spontaneous evolution of syphilis in black males" (Jones pg. 2). Jones is very opinionated throughout the book; however, he carefully documents the foundation of those opinions with quotes from letters and medical journals.

After the emancipation of Black slaves, the practice of exploiting Black people for medical experimentation continued. One such instance of this is the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments of 1932; which is often cited as a pivotal point that entrenched Black people’s distrust of medical institution (Gamble, 1997). During the Tuskegee study, Black American male patients were subjected to experiments to ascertain the proper treatment for syphilis, by U.S. government-funded medical professionals (Rusert, 2009). From this study, penicillin emerged as an effective treatment for syphilis, but this treatment was withheld from many Black American patients, and many were falsely informed that they suffered from “bad blood” rather than syphilis (Rusert, 2009). This resulted in many unwitting patients dying from complications related to the disease, and infecting others.

None of the men knew that the “bad blood” which coursed through their veins was contagious. None understood how the disease was transmitted; no one explained to them that congenital syphilis was passed on from female to fetus. It was an experiment based on deception, a characteristic that it retained for the next forty years. Through a historical analysis of the experiment several questions arise, particularly the issues of the men’s participation in the experiment and the black professionals who witnessed the study. Why did these Black men take part in this study? Why did the Black health professionals not challenge the study? The answers to these questions are interconnected and lies captive in a term Jones calls racial medicine (Jones 15).

This paper will not only focus on the breach of ethical conduct of human experimentation but also introduce different views from Henry Beecher and Jay Katz about the ethics in human research. One of the human experimentation study that breach ethical conduct is the Tuskegee syphilis study, which was conducted in 1932 in Macon County, Alabama. Medical researcher recruited African American male subjects diagnosed with syphilis, they targeted people from poor and rural counties. The main purpose of the study was to acquire information about the natural history of untreated syphilis. The United States public health service “initiated a program to diagnose and treat 10, 000 African American for syphilis “1(pg 212). But unfortunately they didn’t have enough money for the treatments.