Crucial Limitations
Zora Neale Hurston a famous American author of the Harlem Renaissance once said, “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” This is a statement which has held true since the earliest forms of scientific exploration because the researching process is based on attempting to discover new information through active investigation. Proposing a hypothesis about a new subject or revising ancient information, and then using analytical and inquisitive means to reach a conclusion. However, when left unregulated and unrestrained, it is easy for said “curiosity” to lead a researcher amiss, toward the indecent depths of human nature. Therefore limitations should be placed on all forms of scientific research
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What if in addition to this startling idea the government forcefully performed their experimentation to gain this knowledge on unwitting human test subjects? This sounds like the plot of a science fiction movie from some dystopian universe. However, beginning in the 1950s, these seemingly fictitious claims became reality. Project MKUltra was initiated on April 3rd, 1953 when the CIA began drug experimentation to develop methods for influencing and controlling the mind as well as research interrogation/torture techniques. The precursor to MKUltra were two other CIA projects which dealt mainly with producing amnesia effects and creating “hypnotic couriers” out of Soviet spies at the dawn of the Cold War. MKUltra was composed of 149 subprojects mainly focused on developing methods for influencing and controlling the mind as well as research interrogation/torture techniques using LSD, along with other psychedelic drugs, and non-chemical methods such as hypnosis …show more content…
In 1932 the Public Health Service began a study on 600 African American males in conjunction with Tuskegee University. Some may immediately think that the study was initiated to discover a cure or treatment for syphilis, however, in reality participants of the study had treatment withheld from them. These unsuspecting test subjects were used for researchers to be able to discover the effects of syphilis in male African Americans. The full name of the study was actually “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” (“About the
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,
The book BAD BLOOD: THE TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS EXPERIMENT by James H. Jones was a very powerful compilation of years of astounding research, numerous interviews, and some very interesting positions on the ethical and moral issues associated with the study of human beings under the Public Health Service (PHS). "The Tuskegee study had nothing to do with treatment it was a nontherapeutic experiment, aimed at compiling data on the effects of the spontaneous evolution of syphilis in black males" (Jones pg. 2). Jones is very opinionated throughout the book; however, he carefully documents the foundation of those opinions with quotes from letters and medical journals. The book allowed the reader to see the experiment from different viewpoints. This was remarkable because of the initial feelings the reader has when first hearing of the experiment. In the beginning of the book, the reader will see clearly there has been wrong doing in this experiment, but somehow, Jones will transform you into asking yourself, "How could this happen for so long?"
Research is a systematic inquiry that uses disciplined methods to answer questions and solve problems. The ultimate goal of research is to gain knowledge that would be useful to many people. The Tuskegee study was initially started to study the effects of untreated Syphilis for about six to nine months, followed by treatment phase which gained public interest and outcry from public which led to actions initiated by US federal. The knowledge and information gathered from the study was very small compared to the risk that the men and their family endured. The participants and the families got compensated after a lawsuit was filed, but the physical, emotional and mental damaged caused cannot be
Based on the video Deadly Deception the following essay will analyze and summarize the information presented from the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment. The legal medical experimentation of human participant must follow the regulation of informed consent, debrief, protection of participants, deception or withdrawal from the investigation, and confidentiality; whether, this conducted experiment was legitimate, for decades, is under question.
In 1932, in the area surrounding Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama, the United States Public Health Service (PHS) and the Rosenwald Foundation began a survey and small treatment program for African-Americans with syphilis. Within a few months, the deepening depression, the lack of funds from the foundation, and the large number of untreated cases provided the government’s researchers with what seemed to be an unprecedented opportunity to study a seemingly almost “natural” experimentation of latent syphilis in African-American men. What had begun as a “treatment” program thus was converted by the PHS researchers, under the imprimatur of the Surgeon General and with knowledge and consent of the President of Tuskegee Institute, the medical director of the Institute’s John A. Andrew Hospital, and the Macon County public health officials, into a perspective study-The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male (Jones1-15). Moreover, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which began in 1932 and was terminated in 1972 by the protest of an enraged public, constituted the longest nontherapeutic experiment on human beings in medical history. Since the premise on which the experiment was based did not involve finding a cure or providing treatment, the question then remains why did the study begin and why was it continued for four decades?
The study took advantage of an oppressed and vulnerable population that was in need of medical care. Some of the many ethical concerns of this experiment were the lack of informed consent, invasion of privacy, deception of participants, physical harm, mental harm, and a lack of gain versus harm. One ethical problem in this experiment was that the benefits did not outweigh the harm to participants. At the conclusion of the study there were virtually no benefits for the participants or to the treatment of syphilis. We now have
In 1987, there was a Syphilis outbreak in a small town Alabama, Tuskegee. Ms. Evers went to seek out African Males that had this disease and did not. They were seeking treatment for this disease, but then the government ran out of money and the only way they can get treatment if they studied. They named this project “The Tuskegee Study of African American Man with Syphilis”, so they can find out where it originated and what will it do to them if go untreated for several months.
Ta-Nehisi Coates and Zora Neale Hurston, while similar in many ways because they are two African-American writers and activists of their time, are vastly different advocates. Coates views his race as a black male in America as a major disadvantage. Hurston, on the other hand, is content and very proud of her folk culture. While Ta-Nehisi Coates and Zora Neale Hurston express concerns about race and civil rights issues, they do so in a very different way.
Even to present day the there is still a bias among doctors when it comes to treating and diagnosing of black people.The things that kill black the most are preventable and curable Washington says“that blacks are not dying of exotic, incurable, poorly understood illness nor from a genetic disease that target them only but rather from common ailments that are more often prevented and treated among whites than among blacks”(Washington 2006). The most experiment that show how true this statement is the Tuskegee syphilis experiment sponsored by the government of the United States. In this famous experiment, black was infected with the bacteria that causes syphilis.This ...
"It's thrilling to think- to know that for any act of mine, I shall get twice as much praise or twice as much blame"(Hurston 2). Zora Neale Hurston has a remarkably positive but realistic outlook on the duality of the African American female. She understands and therefore is aware that the African American female is greatly magnified in the blurred eyes of the white male world that distorts all of her achievements and shortcomings. Hurston was caught between the emphasis on the exotic aspects of the Harlem Renaissance and the angry voice of black literature during the 1940's and 1950's. During the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston decreased those injustices of race and sex. She challenged the traditional position of women and exceeded the traditional space they had been provided: She dared to see herself as a writer with talent equal to if not greater than her peers at representing the "folk" orally and in writing. Hurston rose above the challenge by becoming the most extraordinary writer of the group. Hurston's works deserve literary and scholarly attention because they acknowledge universal themes, view individuals at all levels of society, and represent the diversity and complexity of the African American female at the turn of the century. Hurston reveals themes in literature that are universal despite the fact that they often experienced divided fidelity to the culture that she lived. The novel Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) has become a perennial classroom favorite because it does not focus on one class, but the entire community as a whole-representing its language, morals, and prejudices-as context. She went against the "nor...
When handling a controversial subject, it is important to recognize the opinion of everyone, not just of oneself. If an author does not recognize, at least to some degree, the opinion of everyone in their audience, they risk losing the interest of readers whose opinions are different. African American writers must consider how it feels to be an African American to their audience; they must understand that there is no such thing as one identity for an entire race.
When penicillin was discovered in 1940 and was the only cure for syphilis at that time. The participants form Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment were excluded from many campaigns that were taking place in Macon County, Alabama to eliminate venereal diseases (Person Education, 2007). This experiment lasted forty years and by the end 28 of the men had died directly of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis (info please, 2007). The directors of this experiment used ethical, interpersona...
The Tuskegee Study, as exampled in the film “Miss Evers’ Boys,” was a horrendous example of the result of racism, a vulnerable population, and the manipulation of people not given the proper dignity they deserved, to benefit the majority class (Woodard). According to the film, in this study a whole community of African Americans went decades with identified cases of syphilis, being given placebo interventions and unjustifiably told that a later recognized intervention of penicillin shots were too risky for their use. Why would they do this? To gain knowledge; and they viewed the study as a “pure” scientific experiment, a human trial that would likely never be acceptable to have been conducted on Whites of the time, and under the full knowledge and aid of the U.S. government (Woodard, “Miss Evers’ Boys”).
This begs the question if the same would have taken place in both cases if the patients were white. Skloot and Brandt’s writing suggests that it would be, as there is a very evident lack of respect and consideration for black patients at this time. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study lasted for decades, only ending in 1972 after receiving backlash from the press. This means that even after the passing of the Civil Rights Act, these researchers continued to study their patients. The poor treatment of black patients in research after the Civil Rights Act demonstrates a pattern in American medicine of taking advantage of black people in need.
The U.S. Public Health Service conducted this new experiment study which consisted of 399 men with syphilis and 201 men without syphilis for forty years, from 1932 to 1972. There was a total of six hundred men who participated in this study. In 1932, the Public Health Service collaborated with the Tuskegee Institute, an African American university which was founded by Booker T. Washington. The men that were chosen for this study were illiterate and were sharecroppers from Alabama. The syphilis rate in Macon County was the highest with a 39.8%. The Tuskegee study became morally and ethically wrong when penicillin became available to treat syphilis and was denied to the participants of the study. The study broke many ethical rules. The participants were told that if they participated, they were going to receive free medical care for their “bad blood.” The men were never informed what they were actually being treated for. Unfortunately, these men accepted because they were getting free healthcare and that is what they desired since they were very poor.