10/16/2013
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The Tuskegee syphilis study was a study on untreated African American males. It was conducted in the years 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama. They tested 399 poor, illiterate black men that were denied treatment for syphilis. Individuals enrolled in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study did not give informed consent and were not informed of their diagnosis. Instead they were told they had “bad blood” and could receive free medical treatment, rides to the clinic, meals and burial insurance in case of death in return for participating. In 1932 syphilis treatments were toxic and dangerous, so the goal was to see if it was better leave people with syphilis without