Learning Goal: I'm working on a health & medical discussion question and need an explanation and
answer to help me learn.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was an infamous clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 b
y the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in rural African-
American men in Alabama. The study was a collaboration with the Tuskegee Institute, a historically blac
k college in Alabama. Investigators enrolled a total of 600 impoverished sharecroppers from Macon Cou
nty, Alabama in the study. Of these men, 399 had previously contracted syphilis before the study began,
and 201 did not have the disease. The men were given free medical care, meals, and free burial insura
nce for participating in the study. None of the men infected were ever told they had the disease, nor wer
e any treated with penicillin after the antibiotic became a proven treatment. According to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, the men were told they were being treated for "bad blood," a local term
for various illnesses that include syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. Discuss the following 2 points:
List 5 ethical problems that occurred in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
The advantage of randomized experiments is that they allow reliable conclusions without the need to wo
rry about lurking variables. The ethical dilemma is to balance the benefits to the patients in the study (wh
o would like the opportunity to choose among available treatments) with benefits to future patients (who
would be served by learning as soon as possible about the effectiveness of the competing treatments).
What are your ethical perspectives on the Tuskegee experiments? Provide at least 1 Scripture passage
that supports your ethical perspectives on experimental studies.
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The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
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The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
Five ethical problems that occurred in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study
Unfairness is one of the ethical issues in the study. The study only included African
American men despite the illness affecting all racial groups and affecting them almost similarly.
The study exposed black people to dangers that other racial groups were not exposed to. Another
ethical issue is the lack of informed consent. Informed consent is necessary because it enables
autonomy (Moosapour et al., 2020). It involves informing participants about all the essential
information they should know to decide whether or not to participate or continue participating.
For instance, the men were not told about their syphilis infection and the dangers that came with
not treating the disease. They were also not told that they would not be treated for their illnesses;
therefore, they may have been misguided about the treatment they were exposed to. Another
ethical issue that was violated is non-maleficence. The principle concerns protecting people from
potential harm from the study they participate in. Usually, researchers need to implement
measures to protect people from adverse consequences when dealing with humans. Also, the
consequences of the study should not be worse than not participating. Usually, when people are
exposed to disease situations, they must be given treatments to prevent harm. However, in the
Tuskegee experiment, the people were not given antibiotics for their syphilis even after the study
(Moosapour et al., 2020). Fourth, the study also violated subject selection requirements. The
selection of subjects only targeted men of one race. Therefore, the study was not representative
of the population that was involved. Firth, the participants, were lied to about their health issues
(Moosapour et al., 2020). Honesty is important in ensuring patients know the effects of the study.
Perspective about the Tuskegee Experiment
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The experiments were out rightly unethical because they failed to protect the people. The
researchers exploited a minority group of people without helping them. Randomized experiments
are important because they usually ensure fairness and equalize the chances of different people
being selected and participating. Usually, researchers have to create criteria and use them to
select people that meet them randomly. However, in the Tuskegee experiment, the researchers
only targeted African Americans men (Barrett, 2019). They also lied to the men and let them
suffer from a disease they did not know they had. While the experiment's intention may have
been to understand the disease and avoid people changing behaviors and affecting the results, it
put them at risk without their knowledge.
The conduct of the researchers involved in the Tuskegee experiment was incompatible
with biblical teachings about justice. One verse highlighting what christens should do is Isaiah
1:17. According to the verse, Christians should seek to be just to the poor, always do well and
ensure that the less fortunate, like widows and the fatherless, are protected (King James Bible,
2017). In the study, minority people were exploited and harmed to benefit the experimenters.
From the verse, the bible also expects people to aim to benefit rather than harm others. However,
by not treating poor people with syphilis during the study, the researchers failed to honor the
bible and Christianity. It is important that while researchers should aim to achieve their research
objectives, they must also benefit the participants and protect their rights.
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References
Barrett, L. A. (2019). Tuskegee Syphilis Study of 1932-1973 and the Rise of Bioethics as Shown
through Government Documents and Actions. DttP, 47, 11.
https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/dttp47&div=36&id=&pa
ge=
King James Bible. (2017). King James Bible
Online. https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/ (Original work published 1769)
Moosapour, H., Zarvani, A., Moayerzadeh, M., & Larijani, B. (2020). Ethical considerations of
biomedical product development. In Biomedical Product Development: Bench to
Bedside (pp. 131-151). Springer, Cham. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-35626-2_13
