The Tuskegee Study Of Untreated Syphilis

The researchers chose black subjects because they, like many whites at the time, believed black people were ‘a notoriously syphilis-soaked race’. (Skloot

The experiment first began in 1932, in a small county within the Macon County of Alabama area. In this are rate of syphilis was up by 35%. Interestingly, the setting of the study was conducted at the Tuskegee Institute, which we know now to be Tuskegee University. The study conducted of 399 men, 201 out of the 399 were used as the control group. The control group contained of those who actually didn’t have the diseases. The study also targeted those who were poor and illiterate. A lot of those patients had the slightest clue to which they were being tested for, only being told they had “bad blood”. The doctors participating in the study thought it would be vital; to not inform

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 experiment (The official name was Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male) began in the 1930’s. It was an experiment on African Americans to study syphilis and how it affected the body and killed its victims done by Tuskegee Institute U.S. Public Health Service researchers. The initial purpose of the Syphilis study “was to record the natural history of syphilis in Blacks” (Tuskegee University, “About the USPHS Syphilis Study,” par. 2). The study was necessary because syphilis was a disease that didn’t yet have an official cure (when the study began in the 30’s). There were 600 men in all; 399 had syphilis and 201 served as a control group for the experiment. The

In Macon County, Alabama, about 40% of African Americans had syphilis. Syphilis caused by a spirochete bacterium that is contracted sexually. In the 1930’s it had relatively no cures or treatments. Syphilis progresses into three stages, the last of which begins to attack the several organ systems of the individual. The victim may become paralyzed, blind and/or deaf; develop heart problems or a mental illness, or other symptoms (Gray 37-38). They decided that they wanted to compare and contrast how blacks and whites develop the disease and the effects on each race. Years before the study of the Negro was set to begin, a similar study for whites was conducted in Oslo, Norway. This study was a retrospective look into the effects of untreated syphilis in whites. The retrospective study used case histories of those who had syphilis when they died not living patients. The U.S. Public Health Service decided to use African Americans in Macon County in the experiment. Originally titled “The Effects of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” the experimentations took place at the Tuskegee Institute which is why the study is generally named the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (Jones 93-94). The Rosenwald Fund, a foundation that funded many programs that were used in the betterment of African-Americans began funding this project. After the Stock Market crash of 1929, and the start of the Great Depression, the Rosenwald Fund has to withdraw all the funds that they

In the article Racism and Research: the Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, by Allen M. Brandt, he discusses a few mains point. The main points of the article is Racism and Medical Opinions, the origins of the experiment, how they selected the subjects, and the HEW final report. In the first point, Racism and Medical Opinions, many of the scientist believed that even with all the “education or philanthropy” the black Americans can’t be cured whether it has to do with diseases or crime. The black Americans also had a lot of deficits and were considered imperfection. Doctors say that the black Americans had a “sexual desire” which puts a lot of the whites in danger. They also say

According the to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was conducted in 1932 by the Public Health, which included 600 black men as their test subjects. Of the 600 men, 399 had syphilis and 201 didn’t (CDC). The men were told that they were being treated for “Bad Blood” and didn’t have any knowledge of being included in a study (CDC). In exchange for their services, researchers offered the men free medical exams, burial insurance, and free meals (CDC). The study was called “ The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” (CDC).

The subjects in this experiment were in fact affected in great deals. They suffered throughout most of their life, from the point of infection all the way until death. While there were medicines available that had the ability to cure those who were sick, the subjects were so illiterate and undereducated that they had no way of knowing about what was going on. The doctors abused all of the patients and crossed several boundaries between personal rights and hospital rights. They lied to the black men, assuring them that they were curing the syphilis. However, not once throughout the entire experiment, did the doctors reveal the truth. Lies were weaved in and out as days, months, and the years of the study went by. Skloot explains in her article, “Taking the Least of You,” that during a court case in 1984 involving patient rights and patient property, the judges ruled, “‘A patient must have the ultimate control of what becomes of his or her tissues. To hold otherwise would open the door to a massive invasion of human privacy and dignity in the name of medical progress’” (Skloot 4). Not only did the doctors of the study abuse the men’s personal rights during the experiment, they also affected them long-term, after the first six months of the study. Brandt explains in his article that, “During the forty years of the experiment, the USPHS had

.The study consisted of a total of “ 600 African- American men; 399 that were previously identified with having syphilis and 201 were uninfected” (“USPHS Syphilis Study” 1). Throughout the entire study the men were never told that they had syphilis, only told that have a condition known as “bad blood”.

The method was to withhold treatment to see how syphilis attacks the body. The researchers went out of there way to keep the men from getting treatment, an example would be ordering the draft board to include the experiments so their disease would remain untreated. The men had no idea they were experiments, their freedom was taken away without them realizing it. The physicians believed that their brains were incapable of understanding the medical terminology, they therefore did not try to attempt to educated the experiments on their condition. Herman Shaw said “maycomb county is a natural laboratory, with rather low intelligence that leads to promiscuous sex”. Several of the physicians that took part in the study were caucasian leading them to see the study from a different view. Herman Shaw, one of the physicians; sees the experiment as grossly misrepresented, and it took place because there was a major concern for the African American community. Another physician, John Cutler, that took part in the notorious experiment still defends the decision to withhold the treatment because they are doing their fair share with the

Several of these men died due to having syphilis and not being treated. “After the study ended, those men who had syphilis, along with their wives and children who had contracted the disease, were given free antibiotics and lifetime medical care” (Fain, 2017, p. 27). Forty years after the study was over, all survivors were offered penicillin and free medical treatment for life from the Public Health Service. The lawsuit that took place after the study, awarded $37,500 to each survivor and $15,000 to the heirs of “deceased survivors.” If this study would have been conducted today, it would have breached several provisions of the Nursing Code of Ethics.

The book, Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, by James H. Jones, was one of the most influential books in today’s society. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment study began in 1932 and was terminated in 1972. This book reflects the history of African Americans in the mistrust of the health care system. According to Colin A. Palmer, “James H. Jones disturbing, but enlightening Bad Blood details an appalling instance of scientific deception. This dispassionate book discusses the Tuskegee experiment, when a group of physicians used poor black men as the subjects in a study of the effects of untreated syphilis on the human body”(1982, p. 229). In addition, the author mentioned several indications of discrimination, prejudice, and stereotype toward this population. Also, this book provides multiple incidents of the maltreatment of human beings. The reader is able to identify the incompetence of the helping professions and violation of human rights, ethical issues, and dehumanize African Americans.

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).

In 1972, however, reports of the experiment were leaked into the press and the experiment was halted. This led to an outcry among the African American community. But by that time, many of the participants had died and many others had passed on the disease to their wives and children. (Reverby, S.M., 2009)

This lead the conducting the experiment in conjunction with a historical black college black doctors and nurses was to give legitimacy to the study. With discrimination being so obvious, I’ll address the study’s impacting healthcare instead. One reoccurring theme surrounding the syphilis study is its reputation is hindering AIDS research. People who are HIV positive don’t want to contribute in human trials of AIDS vaccines. Although, “African Americans face a higher risk of being exposed to HIV infection with each sexual encounter than do other racial/ethnic groups (CDC, 2015)” there is a lingering lack of trust over a study, which was terminated 40 years earlier. It hindered finding HIV treatments because people associated drug studies with the TSS and didn’t want to contribute to finding a cure. Of those who participated, not all of them took the medications resulting in skewed results (Hagen, 2005). That being said, several studies have been conducted identify if people are aware of what happened beyond the negative stigma associated with the experiment. A large percentage of people polled refused to participate; only 7.8% of the ones who volunteered could correctly answer basic questions about the event (Poythress, 2011). What a significant statement about how people tend to hold onto negative events without remembering the details