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Chapter 4 summary of health care ethics
Tuskegee Experiment: The Infamous Syphilis Study
Tuskegee Experiment: The Infamous Syphilis Study
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Ethics refers to the values and customs of a community at a particular point in time. At present, the term ethics is guided by the moral principles that guide our everyday actions. These moral principles guide the researcher into deciding what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. The foundation of medical ethics is governed by two philosophical frameworks that are deontology, and utilitarianism. However ultimately the ethics committees need to balance the risks, and benefits for the participants and the community associated with the particular research proposal. This balance is quite important as the well being of participants is at risk.7
Over the last twentieth century, there have been numerous examples in which ethical principles have not been considered in research leading to ethical breaches that have negative implications on study participants.1 One US human experimentation study which breached ethical conduct was the US Public Health Service Syphilis Study, more commonly known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which was conducted from 1932 through 1972.2 The study recruited 399 African-American male subjects diagnosed with syphilis. The recruited men came from poor, rural counties around Tuskegee, Alabama. The stated purpose of the study was to obtain information about the course of untreated syphilis. The study was initially meant to be for 6 months, however the study was modified into a “death as end-point study”.8,9
The medical researchers of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study failed to gain the proper informed consent by explaining to the subjects they had a diagnosis of syphilis. Rather, the researchers decided to deceive the men to believe they were receiving special treatment from the Us Public Health Service for their “bad blood”...
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9. Baader G, Lederer SE, Low M, Schmaltz F, Schwerin
10. AV. Pathways to human experimentation, 1933-1945: Germany, Japan, and the United States. In: Sachse C, Walker M, eds. Osiris, 2nd Series, Volume 20, Politics and Science in Wartime: Comparative International Perspectives on the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press; 2005:205-231.
11. Solomon J. United States: government concludes some AIDS drug experiments on foster children violated rules. Published June 17, 2005. http://www. aegis.com/news/ads/2005/AD051191.html. [Accessed March 24, 200].
12. McNeill PM. Development of codes of ethics. In: McNeill PM, ed. The Ethics and Politics of Human Experimentation. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press; 1993:37-51.
13. NH&MRC. (2007). National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research. Australian Government: Canberra.
....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 Syphilis Study, which aimed to figure out at long-term effects of untreated syphilis by studying 400 African American men who had the disease, began in 1932 . The study took place over several decades without any intervention despite the rise in Penicillin as a treatment in the 1950s . If administered, the medication could have saved the subjects from a great deal of pain and suffering. None of this information came to light until the 1970s when the study was published and despite the obvious ethical oversights, even when an investigation was opened, important questions of the researchers were never asked and documents that would have exposed the problems with the study were never pursued . The case is particularly egregious when analyzed through the lens of Emmanuel Kant’s ethics philosophy. Due to Kant’s focus on the concept of the Categorical Imperative, which postulates that for an action to be considered moral it must be universally moral, Kant would consider the Tuskegee case to be unethical because of the blatant dishonesty, lack of informed consent, and withholding of
"Nazi Medical Experimentation: The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments." The Ethics Of Using Medical Data From Nazi Experiments. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Dec. 2013.
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment lasted for 30 years before the unethical practice was officially brought to a halt, during that time, the concept of bad blood was used to prolong the involvement of test subjects. Participants infected with syphilis where given fabricated stories that kept them uninformed, making cooperation easier. Lies stretched from being told their blood was bad, to nurses giving them placebo cures. Both were in efforts to either keep blacks uninformed, or to reassure those informed that they were safe. Treasure Island authorities seem to have duplicated the same tactics, and tailor them to radiation. Years after radiation test were complete and questions started to arise, officials started to deny radiation was discovered on the Island. In a Bay Area NBC interview, Treasure Island’s director said, “TIDA director Robert Beck denied that there is evidence of any radiological material being buried where people are currently living. He has continually defended the Navy’s position” (NBC Bay Area). Like Tuskegee, prominent officials denied the severity of the problem to lengthen the case. After given extensive evidence that death was an inevitable outcome, authoritative figures in both situations denied indisputable data. For those who were aware of illness, Eunice Rivers told them they had bad blood, and prescribed/injected a placebo solution. On Treasure Island, residents who were diagnosed with cancer were lied to, and given what can be seen as a
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... ... middle of paper ... ...
The dropping and the atomic bomb and the continued use of human subjects during scientific testing in the 20th century continues to be a controversial subject. It is because the actions carried out saved many lives and that those hurt were informed and volunteered that these methods were moral. It is because of the debate surrounding these actions that science has continued to evolve. From these earlier practices, more rigid experimental methods are enforced. These new regulations protect the patient and continue to ensure that those sacrificing their safety to aid others are not injured without fully understanding the risks involved. The modern world will continue to benefit from the actions taken by the United States during the 20th century.
Veracity, D. (2006, march 6). Human medical experimentation in the United States: The shocking true history of modern medicine and psychiatry (1833-1965). Retrieved December 19, 2013, from Natural News: http://www.naturalnews.com/019189.html#
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)
The Tuskegee was a study of untreated syphilis conducted on African American men that lasted from 1932 to 1972. The Tuskegee study is one of the most influential, if not the most influential study of the 20th century. Unfortunately with what has happened to the individuals that were tricked into participating, it now gives us an example to look back on and to show that this can never happen again and that ethical standards must remain in place. The Tuskegee doctors that participated in the study violated several ethical codes, firstly being, misinforming all of the participants, and not even allowing them to know all of their options and giving them the opportunity to choose whether or not they wanted to participate once they knew all of the
Steinbock, Bonnie, Alex J. London, and John D. Arras. "The Principles Approach." Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine. Contemporary Readings in Bioethics. 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2013. 36-37. Print.
In December 1946, the War Crimes Tribunal at Nuremberg indicted 20 Nazi physicians and 3 administrators for their willing participation in carrying out the harmful research on unwilling human subjects. Thus, Nuremberg code was the first international code for the ethics to be followed during human subject research. It was permissible medical experiments implemented in August 1947. The code also provides few directives for clinical trials (3). Syphilis study at Tuskegee in 1974 was the most influential event that led to the HHS Policy for Protecti...
...to find out something when they use children. The Tuskegee experiment exhibit how cruel researcher can also be, and how racial society was in 1932. The experiments show what can happen without regulations. There should be values and regulations to guide research in these experiments. Concluding, some experiments have the tendency to destroy the lives of the humans that have been experimented on.
McGee, Glenn and Arthur L. Caplan. "Medical Ethics." Microsoft® Encarta® 98 Encyclopedia. © 1993-1997: Microsoft Corporation. CD-ROM.
Orlans, F. Barbara. In the Name of Science:Issues in Responsible Animal Experimentation. New York: Oxford UP: Oxford UP, 1993.