Index Introduction to the Tuskegee Experiment Essay Discussion Conclusion References Introduction to the Tuskegee Experiment Essay Introduction: If anyone ever said that a government agency deceived a group of socioeconomic people, disadvantaged and sick and put them in an experiment where they never gave consent nor were they ever treated for their illnesses when the cure was made available. "Evil", "cruel", "barbaric" would be just some of the words used to describe the scenario. But this is exactly what happened in the 1930s to a group of African Americans in the Tuskegee experiment, which is the topic of this essay. Long before the bioethical concepts of: doing only what is right and beneficial to the patient/subject, treating the patient/subject as a human being, and ensuring that the patient has full awareness of what is being done to him, the scenario described was a common practice. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Conducted under the guise of a scientific experiment, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was a racially unethical medical study that can be considered one of the most horrific medical study scandals of the 21st century (Brandt, 1978). This begs the question: What was the Tuskegee Experiment? How were black people convinced to take part in such an experiment? What elements pushed you to participate with dedication in such an experiment? Thesis Statement: The following paragraphs will answer these questions, discuss in depth the Tuskegee experiment, the moral and logical reasons/excuses used to cause the government health department to conduct such a horrendous experiment, and the impact that the study on Tuskegee syphilis has had on modern bioethics. this will also be discussed. Discussion Background: So what was the Tuskegee Experiment really? To fully understand this experiment it is crucial to understand that at the beginning of the 20th century the prevailing social and scientific thinking was that African Americans were inferior, primitive human beings, prone to disease and crime. It was believed that they always needed structure and found it difficult to assimilate into white society after slavery. Various “scientific studies” conducted demonstrated that emancipation deteriorated the mental, physical, and moral capabilities of the black population (Brandt, 21). Furthermore, considered sexual deviants, they were considered prone to venereal diseases due to their overdeveloped genital organs and insatiable sex. guide. The socioeconomic status of African Americans was totally taken for granted and medical care was seen as a waste for this population. Caused by the spirochete bacterium, syphilis is a sexually contracted disease, which leaves infected people with catastrophic results, ultimately leading to death. At the time, there was no safe/effective treatment or cure for syphilis, and it was an epidemic among rural Southern populations of all ethnicities. Due to their low socioeconomic status, African Americans were the most affected and often went untreated for much of their lives. The United States Public Health Service (USPHS) saw this as a ready-made environment and decided to use these African Americans from Macon County in the Tuskegee experiment (Baker, Brawley & Marks, 1259). Topic sentence: African American organizations, doctors and nurses took part in the study by recruiting the poorest African Americans and ensuring their continued participation in the experiment. It should be noted that years before the Tuskegee study, a similar study on the effects of untreated syphilis had been conducted on whites in Oslo, Norway, but was discontinuedin 1910 when arsenic therapy was discovered and considered a valid means for the treatment of syphilis. at that time. Topic sentence: Funded by the Rosenwald Fund, the experiment was initially supposed to study only the effects of untreated syphilis in the black male, since it was believed that the effect of syphilis in blacks was different than in whites. The Rosenwald Fund was a foundation that funded many successful programs for African Americans such as education and healthcare. Unfortunately, the Rosenwald Fund was hit hard by the stock market crash (which ultimately led to the Great Depression), so it had to withdraw funding for the study. Due to this lack of funding, the health department was unable to continue providing drugs for the study participants and decided to continue using them for a scientific experiment without carrying them out. Evidence and citations: Participants were never informed that they were involved in an experiment and therefore did not give consent. Instead they were told they were being treated for “bad blood,” a term typically used to cover a wide range of illnesses (Hagen, 33). The men were offered incentives for free checkups, free treatment for any disease other than syphilis, free meals, and free postmortem autopsies for burial. Evidence and Citations: Primarily intended to last six to twelve months, the experiment went on for approximately four decades, twenty years after the discovery of penicillin as a treatment for syphilis (Hagen, 33). Comment: Throughout these years, the USPHS went to great lengths to ensure that the experiment subjects did not receive treatment even after the discovery of penicillin. Evidence and Citations: In 1934, a member of the experiment, Dr. Robert Vonderlehr, met with several local black doctors, telling them not to treat any of the experiment subjects (Brandt, 25). He also warned the Alabama Department of Health not to treat any individual who may come to them for treatment. Vonderlehr provided a list of subjects to these doctors and organizations, encouraging them to deny treatment. In 1941, the USPHS provided the list of 256 names to the Army Draft Board, requesting that they be excluded from the draft. Comment: Despite their best efforts, some subjects were able to obtain treatment. This angered Vonderlehr, who wrote a report claiming that the subjects receiving the treatment and the doctors administering it were jeopardizing the experiment. Evidence and Citations: In the 1960s, the USPHS met to evaluate the experiment, rationalizing its continuation, arguing that the subjects were already at the point where no therapy could help them and the subjects received the best care given their situation (Brandt , 26). This was obviously a lie, as the subjects had never received any drugs that directly cured syphilis. In 1969, during a meeting at the Center for Disease Control, a group of doctors, excluding one, agreed to carry out the experiment, stating that they would never have this opportunity again. Evidence and Citation: It was not until 1972 that the study made national headlines that an advisory committee for the Tuskegee Syphilis Study was created. The panel focused on the issue of informed consent and penicillin therapy. The subjects were not aware that they were part of an experiment and were also misled as to what the experiment was really about, so they could not have given informed consent (Brandt, 27). Comment: Furthermore, at the time of the experiment, arsenotherapy was believed to produce good results in the treatment of syphilis, but the subjects were not givenadministered this nor was penicillin administered when it was discovered. Ultimately the panel concluded that the experiment was unethical and the experiment was stopped. Topic sentence: Let's go back to the beginning of this experiment. How were African Americans convinced to take part in this experiment and what was the motivation of some members of the USPHS. As previously mentioned, the social climate at the time of the experiment was not the best for African Americans. The vast majority of African Americans were poor sharecroppers with little or no education, living as debtors under white landowners (Britt Rusert, 156). Furthermore, their living conditions were deplorable compared to those of poor whites. They had no running/clean water, electricity or medical care and had higher mortality and morbidity rates due to the substandard living conditions to which they were exposed. Evidence and Citations: As a result, and along with other racist factors of the time, they were seen as inferior and constitutionally disposable citizens. Therefore, many individuals in power believed that providing medical care to African Americans was a waste of already scarce resources in the Depression era (Hagen, 32). This argument did not please some members of the United States Public Health Service (USPHS), who embarked on a mission to prove this argument wrong (Hagen, 32-33). Comment: They aimed to demonstrate that not only do African Americans get the same diseases as whites, but they also get sick in the same ways and with the same frequency as whites. Topic Sentence: With the above in mind, let's look at this experiment through the lens of Aristotle's triangle. The Greek philosopher Aristotle divided the means of persuasion into three categories: Logos, Ethos and Pathos. Logos means to persuade through the use of reasoning using facts, truth and logic. Ethos refers to the trustworthiness or credibility of the writer or speaker, and Pathos means to persuade by appealing to the audience's emotions. Evidence and Citations: According to Aristotle's triangle, the logo of the situation was to portray African Americans as just as human beings as whites. Other aspects of the logos include health data on the African American population: 50% of the African American population in Alabama was infected with syphilis (Brandt, 22). In addition to that, so many negative assumptions have been made about the African American population that have been taken as reality, especially when it comes to mental and sexual abilities. Furthermore, the morbidity and mortality rates of blacks were facts that led African Americans to become involved in the experiment. The fact that USPHS, a credible and trustworthy health authority, and its members were involved was the ethos of the situation. Additionally, having prominent African American doctors and nurses like Nurse Rivers around to ensure black participation provided greater credibility, as African Americans felt trustworthy. Evidence and Quotations: Pathos – what struck the emotions of this population was that they saw hope for their deplorable situation. The vast majority who had perhaps never had a medical check-up now had “free” and “excellent” healthcare available: treatment for other illnesses and free burial after autopsy in the event of death (Brandt, 24 years). Comment: These were benefits that many of those African Americans only dreamed of. Topic Sentence: Despite the general consensus that the experiment was evil, there is a different school of thought when it comes to the Tuskegee Experiment. These people believe and say that the Tuskegee experiment was not entirely evil because it started with good intentions, such asmentioned above. Evidence and Citations: However, this topic is quickly crippled by one simple question: Why were no white people included in the experiment? ? This in no way encourages human actions. At the time, there were poor, rural whites living in similar (admittedly much better) conditions than their African American counterparts, as Kimberly Hagen stated, “Syphilis was an epidemic among rural Southern populations of all ethnicities, not no safe or effective treatment existed” (Hagen, 33). They could also be considered a financial burden, but were excluded from the study. Comment: Furthermore, the claim that the intentions were so good does not hold up in the face of the fact that the subjects were not given penicillin as soon as it was discovered as a treatment for syphilis. Topic Sentence: Now that the Tuskegee Experiment has been discussed in depth, let's explore its influence on modern bioethics. Over the years, the definition and in-depth analysis of the topic of bioethics have evolved drastically. Evidence and Citations: Today, bioethics can be defined as “a discipline concerned with the ethical implications of biological research and applications, particularly in the field of medicine” (Meriam Webster Dictionary). From surgical protocols to pharmaceutical research, bioethics has become deeply integrated into every medical niche. However, although the specifics of how bioethics is defined vary between different areas of medicine, bioethics rests on a common foundation. Evidence and Citations: According to Lisa M. Lee, in her recent article “Public Health Ethics Theory: Review and Path to Convergence,” she cites that bioethics is based on four fundamental principles: autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice (Lee, 86 ). Comment: These four guiding pillars arose in response to events that have transpired in the healthcare system over the years, one of which is arguably the Tuskegee experiment. Today, the Tuskegee Experiment serves as a reminder and example of what can happen in the absence of bioethical standards, which can give way to personal preferences, biases, and prejudices that influence the reasoning of health care providers. In the 1930s, the Tuskegee experiment blatantly challenged the personal autonomy of its human subjects. African Americans were not communicated to the full gravity and scope of the research they were part of, denying the possibility of autonomy over their own bodies and medical care. In modern medicine, there is an underlying goal to always do what is in the "best interests of the patient." Conclusion Concluding paragraph: As seen in the dangerous and unprecedented treatments and practices inflicted on the Black community, the violation of interhuman beneficence has been clearly ignored in previous years, which has served as fuel to enforce stricter enforcement of what the patient himself wishes for his time under medical care, if able. Hand in hand with beneficence lies the concept of non-maleficence. Nonmaleficence includes the act of taking the safest way to ensure full recovery, avoiding the most harmful and harsh treatment plans at all costs unless absolutely necessary. As noted above, the actions inflicted on the lower-class African American subjects of the Tuskegee experiment could be characterized as malevolent. Patients have been completely denied access to syphilis drugs, allowing them to suffer the crippling effects of the disease that has left patients and their families with not only physical damage, but emotional damage as well. From this experience, as well as others, modern medicine now emphasizes non-maleficence to ensure that the right to life, liberty and happiness of their.