Essay On The Tuskegee Experiment

Imagine if you became a volunteer in a research study? Where you don’t have rights to ask questions of procedures being done to you or maybe choose without the option to refuse. One of the worst medical experiences in history was the Tuskegee experiment. In Macon County, Alabama the Public Health Services along with the Tuskegee Institute started a study in 1932 and continued for about 40 years. It was a research study that involved 600 men which 399 had syphilis and 201 didn’t. The purpose for this study was to record the natural history of syphilis in blacks which was called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” (CDC, 2009). In the 1900’s they did not receive which is known today as the Standard code of Ethics that consist of informed consent, inducements, deception, and debriefing. So the men were lied to and told they were being treated for “bad blood”. They suffered with unnecessary procedures and some losing their lives due to the untreated disease. In exchanged these poor black men received free meals, free medical and burial insurance. Government officials ended the experiment in 1972 because it was reveal to national media. But, by this time 100 men had died from advanced untreated syphilis although they had found the cure.

Today because of that we are fortunate to have which is called the informed consent.
Deception was a big thing in the Tuskegee Study for example; these men were sent a letter with a deceptive title “Last chance for Treatment” (Lifton, 2007). The men were giving the last hope to get better not knowing they were actually singing up for spinal tap, which is a needle stuck in their backs that can be painful as well as risky if not giving the appropriate way and even causing damage to the spinal