The Ethical Wrongs Of The Tuskegee Study

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The wrongs of the Tuskegee study 1 The Ethical Wrongs Of The Tuskegee Study Melissa Fahrion Hudson County Community College The wrongs of the Tuskegee Study 2 The Ethical Wrongs of The Tuskegee Study In 1972 the world was made aware of a medical research study that started back in 1932 and lasted decades. The Tuskegee Study was a prospective study meant to compliment an earlier retrospective study known as The Norwegian Study performed in 1928. Both studies were aimed at gaining knowledge about untreated syphilis in males. The Tuskegee Study took place in Macon, Alabama one of the poorest countries in the state. The study took some 399 poor African American men whom were infected with syphilis and…show more content…
The declaration also says the subjects should be volunteer's, in which these men were not exactly volunteering. The men came forward and agreed to the study because they were deceived of its real meaning and were enticed by free medical care. The wrongs of the Tuskegee study 3 The declaration then continues by saying the investigating team should discontinue research if it seems harmful to the subject, in this case the doctor's continued with the study, withholding treatment from the men knowing this disease could eventually kill them. These actions leave me to believe the doctor's had no concern for the over-all well being of their patients. Science and society should never take precedence over the well-being of the subject, yet in The Tuskegee Study the PHS was more worried about what their findings could do for science then they were with their participants health condition. The ethical guidelines of research call for “ limited “ deception, meaning you can withhold minor details so long as the subjects health and well-being is not at risk, and the subjects not…show more content…
Since the men were refused any form of treatment from any doctor it is evident that their medical history was not kept confidential. The confidentiality agreement in this study was broken when the participants names were released in an attempt to keep them from being treated by anyone. The wrongs of the Tuskegee study 4 Some of these men were drafted into the war, and were suppose to be tested and treated for venereal disease's, but the PHS made sure these men were exempt from their duties. Which yet again is another example of misconduct by the PHS, proving that their names were disclosed to other beings outside of the study. The U.S. National Institute Of Health requires that research on human beings must be diverse in gender, race, and culture. The Tuskegee Study was performed on only African American men, there were no other races or genders involved. The study was focused on finding the affects that syphilis caused on the body in African American men as opposed to Caucasian men. The PHS could have tested both racial groups, yet they chose to only test in African American men. So what could only African American men be infected with syphilis? The answer is no and prior research proves it
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