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 …show more content…
was not made known to them as they continue to believe that they are being helped by the government. The result however was heart breaking as many infected blacks died from lack of treatment even after the penicillin had been discovered to slow down the effects of syphilis and relief the symptoms of the disease in 1940s. The medical team purposively withheld giving the drug to the infected blacks as they monitor their slow death. When the issue was brought to light by a young law student who informed the Associated Press, the public was left in disbelieve of what the government had become. The experiment was conducted in conjunction with Tuskegee University with the approval of the local and state board of health and the availability of willing subjects who thought that the exercise will benefit them in the end. From the begging of the program, the government had put in place mechanisms that were supported by the need to exploit the ignorance and the trust of the blacks on government projects. The architects of the project had the hope that the data that was to be found would be able to generate important information that could be used to enact the establishment of Blacks Health Programs which were urgently needed. In chapter one (1) “A Moral Astigmatism”, the basic overview of the Tuskegee Experiment is brought to light. This chapter covers a brief description of what the experiment was intended to do starting from its inception in 1932 to the events leading to its discovery in 1972. The subjects were poor and illiterate black men in the late stage of syphilis with 201 controls that did not have the virus. In this chapter the theme of exploitation is seen in the way the PHS takes advantage of the poor illiterate blacks who are suffering to carry out their experiment. Deceit and luring the vulnerable population through giving of hot dinners and free treatment of minor ailments goes against human rights. The PHS ignored the human needs and values and pursued their own goals without respecting human life. In chapter two (2) “A Notoriously Syphilis-Soaked Race” the author brings out the controversy surrounding the knowledge of the condition.
The disease was viewed as a black man’s disease due to its vast spread in the black race community. In this chapter, it is clear that the medical fraternity had formed opinion of the disease even before the start of the experiment. The theme of racial prejudice is brought out clearly in this chapter. The blacks are discriminated from the whites even after learning that syphilis can affect both races alike. The slaves received treatment like their masters just because of economic concerns and not because they were human like their masters. In chapter 3 “Disease Germs Are the Most Democratic Creatures in the World”, the writer points out that the germ theory changed the way syphilis is viewed in the society. It was clear that other emphasis such as sanitation, education and preventative medicine was necessary to combat the disease. The areas inhabited by the blacks were behind in healthcare facilities and service. In this chapter, the theme of unequal distribution of resources is seen. Whereas areas inhabited by the whites had better hospitals and qualified professionals to deal with the
cases. Chapter 4 "Holding High Wassermann in the Marketplace" the author pointed the cruelest form of experiment to have been subjected to dying members of the public. It was clear that the medical team negated other means of stopping inadequate treatment and re-infection through treatment, sex education and health surveys. Instead of doing this, demonstration was used that put many blacks in danger and even death. In chapter 5, "The Dr. Ain’t Taking Sticks", the author explain why Macon County, Alabama was chosen for the experiment. In Chapter 6 "Buying Ear Muffs for the Hottentots"the author paints a grim picture of the work environment that existed in Macon County, Alabama and how Rosenwald Fund’s inspector Dr. Warri’s report on the grueling work schedule involved in the experiment. In chapter 7 "It Will Either Cover Us with Mud or Glory" the truth of what was happening behind the scenes came to light when Rosenwald Fund, the main source of financing the project withdrew its financial support from the syphilis control demonstrations. This chapter also discussed the ethical dilemma that was experienced in the experiment period. The theme of negligence and mistreatment can be seen where the PHS allows an experiment on fellow human beings to go on even without necessary ethical approval. In chapter 8 "Last Chance for Special Treatment" the book discussed what can be seen as dubious means by the doctors involved in the experiment. The patients were kept in the dark of their condition and only informed that they were supposed to report back for specialized treatment of “bad blood” condition. The theme of treachery is seen in the way the doctors keep their patients in dark of what awaits them. They also take advantage of the poor man’s hope to get help and exploit them for their own experiment to get going. In the subsequent chapters, the author brings out the progress of the experiment where in chapter 9 "Bringing Them to Autopsy" Nurse Rivers acted as a link between the patients and the doctors urging the black community to bring their dead family members for autopsy to be done. The incentive for doing this was that they will get a proper burial cover from the experiment fund. In chapter 10 "The Joy of My Life" the role of Nurse Rivers in the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment was uncovered. She never asked any question because she felt it was her responsibility to take orders from the doctors even if she knew what was being done is not ethical. In Chapter 11 "Even at Risk of Shortening Life" the value of human life was reduced to the role of experiments to benefit science. In chapter 12 "Nothing Learned Will Prevent, or Cure a Single Case" the author paints a picture of unrelenting PHS on their course to get results even after the law to direct human studies was enacted. Chapter 13 "I Ain't Never Understood the Study" reveals how the Tuskegee experiment was uncovered by a young lawyer. The theme of lies can be seen where a 40 year old experiment that did not benefit the people involved as they thought was uncovered. The government agreed to settle the case and to silence the victims through out of court compensation of 10 million dollars with the lawyer getting himself a whopping $1 million. In Chapter 14 "AIDS: Is It Genocide?" paints a picture of the long term effect of the experiment in the society. The public became very critical and distrustful to the PHS professionals. The Ethical Dilemmas and Questions Uncovered In the Book The Tuskegee Experiment was not only inhuman but had serious breach of ethical standards. It is important for people to be informed of what is their role in every study they participate in it. The poor and illiterate blacks were kept in the dark of what was going to be their role in the experiment. To them they were fulfilling the requirement of the doctor’s call for more specialized treatment for “bad blood”. The doctors who were involved in the experiment were never concerned about being honest with their poor and illiterate patients, the patients did not even know what syphilis really was. It is very baffling the way the doctors behaved when doing the experiment. They were too much absorbed in the experiment to the point of neglecting their responsibility of treating. They actually forgot that their patients were people and used them like lab rats. In 1940s, penicillin drug was discovered and approved for use to lower the effects of syphilis. However, the doctors withheld the drugs from the patient in order to monitor their progression of end stage syphilis. It was unethical to deny the patients a chance to live again while still lying to them that they are going to benefit in free meals and decent burial. Lessons Learned from the Tuskegee Experiment and their Implications The Tuskegee syphilis experiment failed to understand that human beings deserve decent treatment and above all to be treated with dignity. From the start to its dramatic end, the experiment relied on the illiterate poor patient which was wrong to exploit the vulnerable poor. The PHS learned that it is important to get informed consent from subjects involved in any human experiment by giving them the right information on their role. Furthermore, it is important for people to analyze critically their roles in any form of study and be keen not to be fooled and exploited with incentives from the government. The Tuskegee experiment has caused a lot of harm to the medical professional. It is now very hard to conduct studies on black subjects because of mistrust and anger they have on the PHS for lying to them in the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. Three most important discussion questions from the book The most important questions raised in the book are related to the inception, implementation and monitoring of the program. It is clear that syphilis affect people of all races and economic background. Factors such as medical facilities present, knowledge of the disease as far as how to prevent it, body immunity status and the hygiene status of the victim all have an impact on the progression of the disease. The three most important discussion questions from the book are therefore
Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone is a historical novel that focuses on the uphill battle to build the first permanent English colony known as Jamestown. In order to survive the colonists had to find a way to trade with the Indians for recourses and battle against the common enemy, called death. Having a healthy, functioning society was by far the hardest thing to maintain.
Prior to the beginning of the study, the doctors decided to withhold the official diagnosis from their patients. Instead, of telling the patients that they were infected with syphilis they chose to tell them they had bad blood. This was a decision made as a group, however, the provider’s individual reasoning was different. Miss Evers wanted to tell them
The stigma of syphilis was because the symptoms were disastrous. Severe neurological (dementia, deafness, and mental illness), cardiovascular (heart attack, stroke), skin lesions and rashes all over the body, and death. Mercury and sulfuric elements were used to cure it until 1943 when penicillin came along. There 300,000 new cases of syphilis every year. Macon County, Alabama which was a primality black populated area had 35% infected with syphilis. With the great depression going on the budget, on curing syphilis Macon County was cut. In 1932, a new study was being constructed to effects of syphilis on the black
In the case of a lynching, the violence affects both the lynchman and the lynched. Other times the violence is psychological in nature and it is often indirect. No matter what, it poisons and corrodes everything and everyone, from the environment itself to the very self; the “i” within the environment. And it still does to this day. Jean Toomer’s short story, “Blood Burning Moon” and other works featured in Cane, visualizes depictions of violence through lynching and reveal the innermost madness of the psyche that is the product of racialized violence in the South.
Timothy Snyder is an American historian and professor of History at Yale University. Specializing in Central and Eastern Europe as well as the Holocaust, Snyder has written many award winning books on these areas such as Nationalism, Marxism, and Modern Central Europe: A Biography of Kazimierz Kelles-Krauz (1998) and Sketches from a Secret War: A Polish Artist’s Mission to Liberate Soviet Ukraine (2005). Under review in this paper is Snyder’s book Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, a history of Nazi and Soviet mass killing on the lands between Berlin and Moscow published in 2010. The book looks at the mass murder carried out between Hitler and the Nazis and Stalin and the Soviets from 1933 to 1945. Specifically the book focuses on the region in Eastern Europe that Snyder calls the “Bloodlands” in which he states 14 million non military civilians were murdered between the two regimes in 12 years time. He defines the “Bloodlands” as a geographic region between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, commonly called the boarders lands, composed of Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. Bloodlands is a transnational narrative that connects several branches of historiography that usually remain separate. It brings Hitler’s and Stalin’s regimes together in order to explain their interaction between each other and how it affected the region of the “Bloodlands”. Snyder does this in order to systematically analyze the bloody history of the region in order to see how the two regimes enabled and inspired each other to understand the mass murder of civilians that occurred from 1933 to1945. This paper will look at and use reviews of Bloodlands by Mark Roseman, James Kirchick, Christopher Browning, Hironki Kuroimy, Igor ...
Blood in the Hills: The Story of Khe Sahn, The Most Savage Fight of the Vietnam War, authored by Robert Maras and Charles W. Sasser, was published on April 1, 2017 and is currently priced at $18.32 on amazon.com.
Bloodchild is one of the best science fiction stories in history. The novel was written by an American writer, Octavia Butler. This book was first published in 1984 and edited in 2005 where two stories; Amnesty and Book of Martha were added. Blood child has been a famous novel and it has won several awards such as Science Fiction Award in 1984 (Butler, 1984). The novel Bloodchild generally describes the unusual bond between a human being who has escaped from the earth and invaded the planet of insect-like alien species called the Tilac. This paper thus aims to explore how the information from the novel, "Bloodchild" is related to the real-life situation by looking and analyzing different themes.
While giving biological evidences to prove that black people are savages and less than the white, Jefferson never discuss how bad the condition for slaves really was. On the other hand, Jacobs’ article carefully described the harsh environment which slaves live in that Jacobs’ vulnerably and helplessness was constantly reminded by her master’s unreasonable commands. The only effective way of resistance and self-protection was avoiding conflicts with the master. Still, she had to endure master’s violent outbreak and being treated as
The Tuskegee experiment was an experiment that involved African American men and syphilis. It was hypothesized that African Americans reacted differently to syphilis than whites did. These men were brought into the experiment without knowing what was happening, that they had syphilis, or that there was a cure for it already established. Many of those in the experiment believed that it was "bad blood", and never heard it termed syphilis. The health care providers that were administering the experiment were whites as well as African Americans. The experiment lasted for 40 years before it was finally brought to the public attention. Over 3/4 of the participants had died from the fact they were not being treated. This caused mistrust among the
The Tuskegee Syphilis study was a 40 year long experiment held by the U.S Public Health Service from years 1932-1972. The study put at risk the lives of many innocent black males, the study was for the disease Syphilis, Syphilis is an STD which is easily spread through unsafe sexual contact with a partner. “In the male negro”, The study had 600 illiterate black males 399 of those patients were not actually infected with the disease. Illiterate and uneducated males were used because of their lack of concern to their health, or rather not being concerned with what doctors said, for they were the ones who “knew all”. They trusted the doctors because they were the ones who were educated and supposedly knew more than the patients. The researchers withheld information that could’ve saved the test subjects from the disease and long
1. I believe that Dr. Zuger chose the people she did because she was trying to get a large amount of differences of infections the patients could contract and also show the patients' similarities in lifestyle and the similarities in the way in which they grew up to try and educate people on the lifestyle one must live to put oneself at higher risk for contracting this terrible disease. The characters all seemed to have come from a home without much love from their family members, or they had something major missing in their life that could have caused a great amount of stress not normally experienced in an average person's life. All of them were uneducated and careless leading us to believe that Dr. Zuger was trying to show that education and responsibility are the best ways to prevent one's contraction of this disease. Some of them got HIV from reckless lifestyles such as drug use involving needle sharing to prostitution while others got it merely by having sex with casual partners. The decision to pick this array of patients again strengthens the fact that Dr. Zuger is trying to tell us that it is possible to get AIDS in many ways and that just because one is having casual sex does not mean that he is immune from its effects. These are probably a few reasons why Dr. Zuger chose them for her book.
The Antebellum period in the southern United States featured thoroughly incompetent physicians and doctors. Slave populations, consequently, began to rely on old tribal doctors. “...the slave would probably throw [regular medicine] away and rely on...African lore” (as qtd in Brignac 6). At the time, predominant and treacherous methods of caring for illnesses contained draining blood, blistering, and forcing a patient to vomit in order to cleanse the body of harmful diseases. The physicians of Antebellum South mistakenly accepted that the white and black populations reacted differently to their environment. Several white doctors of the South established that slaves had gained resistance against several illnesses such as malaria or yellow fever
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study originated in September 1932. Scientist and researchers traveled to Macon County to gather Blacks and underprivileged, indigent American citizens who were infected with latent syphilis to serve as participants, ‘guinea pigs’, for the study. They selected black men that were between the age 25-60 who were infected with syphilis. Many of the test subjects were easily persuaded due to the idea and the promise of a cure. ( Cite) From the study’s provenance, the scientist betrayed the trust and faith of the members of the experiment. After being tested for the disease, the members of the study weren’t given any specifics with regards to their health status. Instead, they were told that they had “bad blood”, but with
Violence is often used in literature by antagonists to symbolize evil and darkness, and to represent the brutal force that opposes the characters. However, in the novel Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, this is not the case. Violence in Blood Meridian is not used as a symbol of evil by the antagonist, but is used by all the main characters, including the protagonist, as a way of life. Blood Meridian is a fictional novel that documents the events of a character who is referred to as only “the kid”, as he joins the Glanton gang, a scalp hunting gang who targets Native Americans
Many of these African American men had low socioeconomic status and were compelled to participate in this study in exchange for health services and care at no cost them. All the while, penicillin was a form of treatment that could have cured the STI, Syphilis.