Tuskegee Study - Worst Medical Study In The US

Science is one of the most important fields of study in human civilization where we witness the rise of mankind to become more advanced in the future. Nevertheless, there were moments when science has been used as a tool to manipulate others for the sake of advancement.

That's what truly happen to hundreds of black African-American who were forced to participate in an experiment by the United States government. This incident was marked as the darkest history in US medical science and the whole world as we witness something evil happening in the name of medicine.

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All of it occurred in the state of Tuskegee, Alabama.

Tuskegee Study - Victimizing The Humans

On 25 July 1972, a journalist named Jean Heller exposed the news of one conspiracy being hidden for more than 40 years by medical practitioners and the US government. In the report, he claimed that the US government intentionally left these black individuals who were infected with syphilis in Tuskegee, Alabama to study this disease.

They were also left without any treatment for 40 years and the project that was called Tuskegee Study was conducted without the knowledge and approval of the Public Health Service USA(PHS).

It was initiated in 1932 and the region was chosen as it has the highest cases of syphilis at the time. The treatment of syphilis back then were only using poison and mercury which has detrimental effects on human.

Almost 600 black men offered themselves to partake in the experiment following free transportation, lunch as well as an insurance offered in case they passed away. Interestingly enough, the participants were also guaranteed to receive free medical treatment during the program.

However, most of them were not told that they were basically lab rats for the syphilis experiment. The PHS fooled the participants by taking their blood samples regularly to identify the cure for the disease known as "bad blood" that commonly infects black individuals.

Became The Subject Of Experiment Without Knowing

169 male individuals that were chosen did not have syphilis while the rest 431 people were infected with the disease. Half of the patients that had syphilis were given proper treatment using medications at that time whereas the rest were left without treatment to allow the researchers and medical experts to perform their experiments on them.

In the beginning, they were told to partake in the experiment for only 6 months but the reality was quite the opposite as they were there for more than 40 years. It was all until 1972 when the whole experiment was exposed to the public.

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Now some of you might ask why such a long period was needed? Well, the Tuskegee study require an autopsy to be performed on the syphilis patients who passed away to identify the damages that had been done by the disease.

Due to that. the syphilis patient needs to be left to die of the disease so that the researchers can then study their genitals. Around 10 years after this experiment was initiated, in 1947 was the discovery of penicillin which was capable of treating syphilis effectively.

However, due to the basis of science and medicine, all the participants that were still alive were left without any treatment. All the patients have to die while having syphilis to fulfill the objectives of the experiment.

Betrayed or Fooed?

The study that was conducted received the help of an expert from the Tuskegee Institute, a black community college in Tuskegee. Several individuals like Robert Moton, President of the institute, and Dr. Eugene Dibble a black doctor who voluntarily participates in the study from the start.

Both of them were appointed as individuals who will deal directly with all the patients. It was unknown whether these black individuals knew about the lies being told by the PHS or if the PHS was also fooled too.

Some believed that the action of appointing the black community representative was done on purpose so that the patients will feel more confident to join the study. Until 1972 as the media exposed this experiment, 74 of the patients still lived.

Records state that among those who passed away, 28 of them died due to syphilis. 154 died of a heart attack which cannot be identified if it is due to syphilis. What makes things even sadder was that 40 women who were married were also infected with syphilis.

19 children of the participants were infected with syphilis since birth.

Disclosure of This Evil Experiment

Several years after it was exposed to the public, in 1966, Peter Buxtun an investigator from PHS sent a letter informing one of the directors of PHS regarding his doubts about the Tuskegee Study.

He believed that the study was against the code of ethics, morality as well as the pledge of medical practitioners. Despite that, he received a very disappointing feedback stating that the study must be carried on until all the participants passed away and were safe to be operated on.

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Since he cannot comprehend such an answer, Peter decided to remain silent before having the courage to seek the media to expose what the PHS has been doing for so long. Based on the information that he had, the newspaper published an article about the study on 25 July 1972 and it became the front headline of many newspapers in the US.

An investigation on the congress level was conducted by several officers including Peter Buxtun to give his statement. An investigation panel was established to study the Tuskegee Study in terms of its ethics and the misuse of power by medical practitioners.

Based on the analysis of the investigation, an order to stop the study was issued. The US government was told to pay compensation amounting to $10 million to those participants that were still alive.

Free medical treatment was also given to the participants and their family members for life if they still had any diseases related to syphilis after the study was put to a stop.

Effects of Tuskegee Study To This Day

A symposium to analyze the effects of the Tuskegee Study still exist in 1994 by a group of medical practitioners and other professionals in the US. The final report was completed on May 1996 with two main propositions that must be met regarding the incident.

The first one is that the US government shall make an apology to the individuals involved in the study as well as their relatives. Secondly, one effective strategy should be introduced to prevent the negative impacts of a study in the long run.

Despite the US president at the time, Bill Clinton making his apology to the people involved and their family members, the relationship between the US medical system and the black communities is still tense.

Their faithfulness toward the overall medical system being regulated by the white people caused the black people to have doubts about the treatment being given at clinics and hospitals.

A study was done showing that 80 percent of black individuals believed that the patients of the Tuskegee Study were intentionally infected with syphilis so that the doctors can perform surgery on these dead patients.

To this day, black people in the US still remember their past nightmare about the Tuskegee Study as a reminder to not be fooled easily just because of the color of their skin.

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