When a person seeks medical attention they go with the hope that their personal rights will not be violated with the belief that doctors will uphold their personal standards. Unfortunately, this is not always so for people who visit the hospital. There are documented cases in United States history involving African Americans being experimented on for the greater good without their knowledge or consent, and some of the most heinous cases involve doctors injecting their study groups with life threatening diseases. What happens when good science goes bad and who has the right to relegate the status of another human being as less than? In this research paper we will examine a clinical testing case study featuring the violation and exploitation …show more content…
The experiment lasted more than forty years and did not garner media attention until 1972, when it was finally made public by Jean Heller of the Associated Press to an outraged nation. The fact that a medical practitioner would knowingly violate an individual’s rights makes one question their bioethical practices. What gives doctors the right to make a human being a lab rat? When both of these case studies began in the earlier half of the 20th century, African Americans were still fighting for the most …show more content…
The most important book that was written is Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment by James H. Jones because it not only chronicles the disparities of experiment but it highlights the relationship between syphilis, the modern AIDS virus, and the African American community. Jones accounts for one of the worst experiments conducted by the United States Government. After treatment with penicillin became available, it still was withheld from the patients. Some would fault the patients for not getting the treatment, but most of the participants were illiterate. Tuskegee’s Truth edited by Susan M. Reverby has different articles and interviews from patients. Senator Kennedy also interviewed survivors from the experiment. In 1973 the government settled out of court, compensating survivors, heirs to survivors, and provided treatment for the victims. By this time most of their lives were already spent, and valuable time wasted. They were just told they had “bad
....S. Public Health Service advanced medical technology, it came at a high cost. A high cost that resulted in many African-Americans dead and a breach of trust for medical professionals. In the notable experiments of Henrietta Lacks, The Tuskegee Syphilis Men, and The Pellagra Incident, medical professions in no way protected the lives of these individuals. In fact, they used the medical advances discovered as a result of the human experimentations as a shield to mask the unethical decisions. Medical professionals targeted the African-American population and used their ignorance as a means to advance medical technologies. This in no way upholds the ethics that medical professionals should display. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks vividly exhibits the how the United States Public Health Service used, abused, and ultimately destroyed the African-American community.
Ethical violations committed on underprivileged populations first surfaced close to 50 years ago with the discovery of the Tuskegee project. The location, a small rural town in Arkansas, and the population, consisting of black males with syphilis, would become a startling example of research gone wrong. The participants of the study were denied the available treatment in order further the goal of the research, a clear violation of the Belmont Report principle of beneficence. This same problem faces researchers today who looking for an intervention in the vertical transmission of HIV in Africa, as there is an effective protocol in industrialized nations, yet they chose to use a placebo-contro...
The Tuskegee Experiment is one of the unethical Health Researches done in the United States. The way the research was conducted was against people 's civil rights. Totally secretive and without any objectives, procedures or guidance from any government agency. During the time that the project was launched there were very few laws that protected the public from medical malpractice or from plainly negligence. Also the Civil Rights act did not pass until the 1960 's.
According to the Belmont Report (1979), justice is relevant to the selection of subjects of research at two levels: the social and the individual. Skloot (2010) describes how “Gey took any cells he could get his hands on” and how “TeLinde began collecting samples from any woman who walked into Hopkins with cervical cancer” (p. 30). These two doctors did not exhibit fairness in their selection of subjects. Dr. TeLinde was collecting samples from women on the color ward and did not consider the appropriateness of placing further burdens on already burdened persons. The women whose tissue samples are being gathered for research are the women who will most likely be the last to benefit; because more advantaged populations (wealthy and white) will initially be the primary
However, in this case, the medical researcher’s committed an ethical taboo by using a person’s corpse without theirs or their family’s knowledge or consent. In the article, “Henrietta Lacks and the HeLa Cell: rights of patients and Responsibilities of Medical Researchers”, written by Jessica L. Stump, the author acknowledges the collapse of individual post-mortem rights. To aid the advancements in medical research, “[her] cells have become the standard laboratory workhorse”(Stump 131) even to this day. As a result of the success of the researchers’ medical findings “the rights of her [own] family, [feel they are being] violated” (Stump 131) because they were never notified of Henrietta’s historical contribution. An Executive Director of the Presidential Commissions Lisa M. Lee, makes a harsh but valid comment in saying that “[t]he benefits of research have to outweigh the risks to the individuals involved” (Stump 131). Without the cures HeLa cells have done as a result of the denial of her individual post mortem rights, we could have faced countless more deaths to date, including the possibility of losing our loved
To begin, the ownership of the tissue should belong to the person until removed from the body with consent or no, which greatly complicates the issue. To illustrate, the instance where Dr. Jones at John Hopkins took samples of Henrietta's cervix tumor to use for cancer research by George Guy was a situation in which should be justified as the best course of action Dr. Jones took (53). Not only did the tissue taken provide the medical world a vital resource for research and study, but also it failed to have any negative effects on the deceased owner, Henrietta Lacks, yet many people found it as questionable. Moreover, the abuse of tissues taken from patients cannot be ignored such as the Moore v. Regents of the University of California Moore sued because he did not want the commercialization of his tissue and his doctor, Golde, did not inform him of the financial potential of his tissue before requesting consent; however, these abuses have demonstrated that the lack of “informed consent” when requesting tissue dona...
In looking at these instances, the doctors seemed to have thought their actions normal. They thought that since they were treating the patient they automatically had access to their cells, tissues, DNA, that they could take without permission and use to develop science or to even become rich and famous like Dr. Golde tried to do. One might say that no matter how useful a person's biological property can be to western medicine and science, it does not excuse the violation of privacy of a patient. Ostensibly, there is no need to worry about a patient saying no if the doctor has moral and beneficial intentions for the use of a patient's private, biological
In the United States, the basis for ethical protection for human research subjects in clinical research trials are outlined by the Belmont Report developed in the late 1970’s. This document, published by the Nation Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research, highlights three important basic principles that are to be considered when any clinical trial will involve human research subjects. They are; respect for persons, beneficence, and justice. (Chadwick & Gunn, 2004)
In the 19th and 20th centuries, researchers did not consider ethics when using minorities in research. For example, doctors tested drugs and new surgical techniques on slaves. The doctors did not even use
This point alludes to discrimination and asserts that medical research should include an equal number of subjects of various sex, race, age, and backgrounds in order to better the human race as a whole. By implementing these parameters into biomedical research, organizations can better civilization while doing so in an ethical manner. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study has raised numerous questions and concerns regarding regulation within professional trades. Doctors and physicians take a Hippocratic Oath and swear to help those around them. This experiment demonstrated why ethics and stringent control measures are required when people’s lives are at stake.
The book, Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, by James H. Jones, was one of the most influential books in today’s society. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment study began in 1932 and was terminated in 1972. This book reflects the history of African Americans in the mistrust of the health care system. According to Colin A. Palmer, “James H. Jones disturbing, but enlightening Bad Blood details an appalling instance of scientific deception. This dispassionate book discusses the Tuskegee experiment, when a group of physicians used poor black men as the subjects in a study of the effects of untreated syphilis on the human body”(1982, p. 229). In addition, the author mentioned several indications of discrimination, prejudice,
Bad blood is a book that was written James H. Jones who is an associate professor of History. The book narrates on how the government through the department of Public Health service (PHS) authorized and financed a program that did not protect human values and rights. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment which was conducted between 1932 and 1972 where four hundred illiterate and semi-illiterate black sharecroppers in Alabama recently diagnosed with syphilis were sampled for an experiment that was funded by the U.S Health Service to prove that the effect of untreated syphilis are different in blacks as opposed to whites. The blacks in Macon County, Alabama were turned into laboratory animals without their knowledge and the purpose of the experiment
There is very much controversy surrounding the case of the very popular Henrietta Lacks. One of the major implications on the situation that people have a problem with is the lack of consent obtained by Johns Hopkins University and the doctors involved. All though it was not common place as it is in today’s society, many feel that it was not ethical to perform medical procedures without the patient and their family being given all of the knowledge regarding the situation. The tissue sample taken by doctor Howard W. Jones was unbeknown to the family which violates the ethical respect for the person that should be held. A sample of someone’s DNA is not anything that should be taken lightly or regarded as unimportant. It should have been a decision made by Henrietta, and had she of known of the procedure she may have voted against donating to research. This lack of incorporating Henrietta and her family caused there to be a dismal amount of respect for persons shown by the University and all
The story about Henrietta Lacks is the evidence that the ethics of medical processes need to be improved. For a long time, many patients have been victims of malpractice. Sometimes, the doctors still can do anything without the agreement from patients. Any medical institution needs to hold the integrity on any consent form that is signed by a patient. To summarize, the story of Henrietta Lacks could be the way to improve the standardization and equality of medical institutions in the future.
Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1976. Call Number: HV4711.A56. American Medical Association. The “Animal Experimentation Benefits Human Health”. Animal Rights Opposing Viewpoints?