Scribd
Upload
72 views1 page

Tuskegee

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was a study conducted in Macon County, Alabama from 1932 to 1972 where 399 African American men with syphilis were told they were being treated for "bad blood" but were not given proper treatment. When penicillin became a standard treatment for syphilis in 1947, it was withheld from the experimental group. Over the course of the study, dozens died from syphilis and infected others. An investigation later found that informed consent was not obtained and the men were not made aware of the purpose and risks of the study, including being denied an effective treatment once it became available.

Uploaded by

Aya Abulag
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
72 views1 page

Tuskegee

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was a study conducted in Macon County, Alabama from 1932 to 1972 where 399 African American men with syphilis were told they were being treated for "bad blood" but were not given proper treatment. When penicillin became a standard treatment for syphilis in 1947, it was withheld from the experimental group. Over the course of the study, dozens died from syphilis and infected others. An investigation later found that informed consent was not obtained and the men were not made aware of the purpose and risks of the study, including being denied an effective treatment once it became available.

Uploaded by

Aya Abulag
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 1

Andrea Yvonne Abulag

BSN-2A
Bioethics, Wednesdays 1:00PM-4:00PM
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

The study took place in Macon County, Alabama, the county seat of Tuskegee referred
to as the "Black Belt" because of its rich soil and vast number of black sharecroppers who were
the economic backbone of the region. The intent of the study was to record the natural history of
syphilis in Blacks. The study was called the "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro
Male." When the study was initiated there were no proven treatments for the disease.
Researchers told the men participating in the study that they were to be treated for "bad blood."
This term was used locally by people to describe a host of diagnosable ailments including but
not limited to anemia, fatigue, and syphilis.
A total of 600 men were enrolled in the study. Of this group 399, who had syphilis were a
part of the experimental group and 201 were control subjects. Most of the men were poor and
illiterate sharecroppers from the county. The men were offered what most Negroes could only
dream of in terms of medical care and survivors insurance. They were enticed and enrolled in
the study with incentives including: medical exams, rides to and from the clinics, meals on
examination days, free treatment for minor ailments and guarantees that provisions would be
made after their deaths in terms of burial stipends paid to their survivors. There were no proven
treatments for syphilis when the study began. When penicillin became the standard treatment
for the disease in 1947 the medicine was withheld as a part of the treatment for both the
experimental group and control group.
Between the start of the study in 1932 and 1947, the date when penicillin was
determined as a cure for the disease, dozens of men had died and their wives, children and
untold number of others had been infected. This set into motion international public outcry and a
series of actions initiated by U.S. federal agencies. The Assistant Secretary for Health and
Scientific Affairs appointed an Ad Hoc Advisory Panel, comprised of nine members from the
fields of health administration, medicine, law, religion, education, etc. to review the study.
While the panel concluded that the men participated in the study freely, agreeing to the
examinations and treatments, there was evidence that scientific research protocol routinely
applied to human subjects was either ignored or deeply flawed to ensure the safety and well-
being of the men involved. Specifically, the men were never told about or offered the research
procedure called informed consent. Researchers had not informed the men of the actual name
of the study, i.e. "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male," its purpose, and
potential consequences of the treatment or non-treatment that they would receive during the
study. The men never knew of the debilitating and life threatening consequences of the
treatments they were to receive, the impact on their wives, girlfriends, and children they may
have conceived once involved in the research. The panel also concluded that there were no
choices given to the participants to quit the study when penicillin became available as a
treatment and cure for syphilis.

You might also like