The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

Personal Statement:

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is a classic example of racism in American life that overflowed into the American medicine. Forty years of conducting a study of the effects of syphilis on black men in Macon County, Alabama, was a story that gained public attention in 1972. It was not a secretive study unlike the Human Radiation Experiments but equally immoral. The findings of the Tuskegee study were published in famous medical journals and openly discussed in conferences. To the surprise no one in the scientific community questioned the methodology undertaken in this study. The study has raised a host of ethical issues and has very important lessons to learn for the scientist in this generation. 

It can be justly critiqued by breaking it into two eras: pre and post penicillin. In 1946 penicillin was discovered as a wonder drug that had a cure for syphilis. Within months it was in mass production throughout America.

Pre-penicillin period is from 1932 to about late 1940’s. The study started in 1932 as a cooperative project having PHS, department of Public Health Services, as a primary investigator. They targeted poor neighborhood of Alabama where people were socially and medically disadvantaged. The seemly “government doctors” enticed the ignorant black people by offering free physical examination. Like wolves in sheep’s clothing these doctors used 399 (and more) people without their consent in a deadly serious experiment. The syphilitic patients who were considered as subjects in the experiment and were denied treatment. The Scientists in favor of the study during this period contend that the contemporary treatments had more potential harm for the patients than potential benefits. This argument does not discredit the immorality committed by withholding the best available treatment for a particularly cruel disease. Even today patients suffering from cancer are treated with chemo-therapy which has equally toxic effects on the patient’s body. 

Post-penicillin period is from late 1940’s to 1972. Everyone knew the efficacy of penicillin but still the doctors kept the “subjects” from getting the treatment. The denial of penicillin treatment was the most critical moral issue about this experiment. It compounded on the previous immorality committed in the pre-penicillin period.

Conclusion:

The moral astigmatism of the study was fueled by racism, social class hierarchy, scientific and bureaucratic inertia. The ultimate lesson to learn is “moral judgment should be a part of any human endeavor” and scientific investigators are no exception.