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Summary on tuskegee syphilis research study in 1929
Facts about the Tuskegee syphilis experiment
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The events of the Tuskegee Syphilis Project are unfortunate and heartbreaking. Such unethical practices in the conduct of research are thankfully a thing of the past. In this discussion, I will review why I believe the participants took part in the Tuskegee Syphilis Project, what ethical principles were violated during that study, and why or why not an experiment like that would be conducted today. The folks who participated in the Tuskegee Syphilis Project were living in poverty in the rural areas of Alabama (Fourtner, Fourtner, & Herreid, 2006). They were never exposed to medical treatment or doctors. When they were informed by health officials they were getting their blood drawn to test for “bad blood”, surely it did not occur to them, …show more content…
or they did not realize, that they could ask questions or get further information. They may have participated because they thought it was a normal procedure or did not know they had the choice to not partake. They may have put their faith in the health officials who were in positions of public service and thought it was their duty or obligation to do as they asked. The men that were in the study were not told of the study’s aims. They gave permission for autopsies after their death and told the information would help science. They were promised money for burial expenses and were told they would receive treatment for their “bad blood.” They probably felt they were contributing to helping science and society and, being poor, they may have felt seduced and drawn in by the prospect of having their funeral costs paid for and their family would not be burdened. The ethical principles violated during the study are all of the basic principles of human research, which are respect for persons, justice, and beneficence (LoBiondo-Wood & Haber, 2014).
The men were coerced with money and were not provided with the freedom to participate or not, ask questions, or have the specifics of the study explained to them. It was an injustice to deny them treatment for their diagnosed disease and to deny them the explanation of all that the study entailed. Beneficence was violated because the researchers did not maximize benefits of the study and knew they were harming the men by withholding antibiotics and treatment for their syphilis. The well-being of those well-meaning and innocent participants was, in my opinion, disregarded to the highest and most severe and devastating degree. A study such as this one would not be allowed to be carried out today. It would not be approved by any Institutional Review Board and would certainly be dismissed, if not thoroughly, rigorously, exhaustively, and intensely questioned. In research, there is always the potential for harm and having sound ethics is fundamental for any study and helps to protect society (Doody & Noonan, 2016). In conclusion, exploiting research participants and conducting studies that are blatantly unethical is fortunately no longer being done. Although ethics codes, principles, and strict regulations have evolved over time, it is a continuous process that should never go by the wayside. References
Doody, O. & Noonan, M. (2016). Nursing research ethics, guidance and application in practice. British Journal of Nursing, 25(14), 803-807. Retrieved from: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ohiou.edu/eds/detail/detail?sid=e0a245ca-1ca9-403a-9f10-36be7d3a4f31%40sessionmgr4007&vid=1&hid=4208&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#AN=117074927&db=rzh Fourtner, A. W., Fourtner, C. R., & Herreid, C. F. (2006). Chapter 16 Bad blood: A case study of the Tuskegee Syphilis Project. In C. F. Herreid (Ed.), Start with a story: The case study method of teaching college science (pp. 99-110). Arlington, VA: NTSApress. Retrieved from: http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy.library.ohiou.edu/eds/detail/detail?sid=81a1d15d-6867-483d-ab67-46af85bdc649%40sessionmgr120&vid=0&hid=117&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d#db=ehh&AN=34071084 LoBiondo-Wood, G. & Haber, J. (2014). Nursing research: Methods and critical appraisal for evidence-based practice (8th ed.). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier Mosby.
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
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 study was called Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. The original study which was proposed for 9 months went on to 40 year study. Impoverished African American males were enrolled, patient’s informed consent was not obtained, and
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 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
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.
Therefore, he states he wants to “focus the paper on the arguments offered in support of the claim that these trials were unethical,” (302). The first criticism states,” injustice was done to the control group…second, the participants in the trial were coerced into participating…third, the countries in question were exploited,” (302). Against the first criticism, he argues that if the clinical trials were not conducted the participants would not have received proper treatment. For the second criticism, he states that coercion, “involves a threat to put someone below their baseline unless they cooperate with the demands of the person
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.
There are a number of ethical issues in this case. A major ethical issue surrounding this study pertains to the subjects being enrolled without their informed consent. The test subjects were also promised free “bad blood” treatments, which is not what they were receiving at all. Members were misinformed of the purpose of the study and the details regarding their involvement. In addition they were not informed of the disease they had (syphilis) or how serious the disease processes were. An agreed autopsy after death had to be made in order to have their funeral costs paid for. None of the subjects were given proper treatment for their disease, and when penicillin became available as an effective treatment for syphilis, they were not allowed to
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 ... ...
In this day and age anyone can write anything and put it on the internet for everyone to read. You have to be diligent in separating fact from fiction. If you are skeptical you may have to do your own research to see where the information originated. Do not believe everything you read just because it states it was from a study as it may not be reliable or truthful. Both of these studies had interesting information, however since they both were lacking sufficient data it was hard to determine if the studies were completely honest and adequate or not.
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 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.
Following the ethical codes and getting approval from the Institutional Review Board (if the study has human subjects) can really decrease the possibility of any harm being done to the participants. A perfect example of a research study that had lots of things unethical practices was the Tuskegee Syphilis study: