CGS-authored
The notoriety of the Tuskegee syphilis study is unparalleled in the field of bioethics. Last week marked the 42nd anniversary of the horrific experiment's termination, and many people took the opportunity to recall Tuskegee and examine its relevance to the treatment of human research subjects today.
Half a century ago, what the U.S. Public Health Service did in Tuskegee was considered acceptable medical practice. Its researchers willingly endangered the lives of hundreds of African-American men in rural Alabama, leading them to believe that they were being treated for "bad blood." They could have been treated for the syphilis they actually had, since penicillin had become an available treatment by then.
But in the name of improving scientific understanding of the disease, all relevant information and treatment were purposefully kept from them. They were unknowing participants in a 40-year-long medical study to test the natural progression of syphilis and the full extent of its toll on black bodies.
Wives and children of the men contracted the disease, and numerous people died, but it was not until there was a leak to...