1932 Macon County, Alabama

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

    
     The city is Macon County, Alabama the year is 1932 you make a dollar a day and you hear "Last chance for free special medical treatment!" wouldn’t you run in line? In today’s times with outrageous prices for medical treatment I would. So you sign up but it’s too bad you can’t read or you’d know that an autopsy needed afterword and you might suffer conditions such as tumors, heart disease, paralysis, blindness, insanity and death. Sounds kinda crazy! But to let it happen in the United States for forty years that’s preposterous or is it. 600 African American males put there trust in the PHS, their doctors and the government and took the deal for special treatment. Enter "The Tuskegee experiment" Blatant lies, deceit, malpractice and needless experimental procedures but... was it all legal or unethical?
    
Do African American deeply distrust medicine? Can anyone spot the elephant in the room! This study case is not the first case of many shameful episodes in U.S history. Native Americans were given small pox infected blankets.  Horrific incidents continue at U.S. prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. Is the government on a secret genocide mission? The AIDS/HIV counts recently went from 40,000 to 56,300. Why so much misinformation! Still to this day experiments are being conducted without sound judgment and proper consent. What could be the cause in this case a misunderstanding a lack of knowledge or just the blatant thought that one race is superior to another. You think you can have trust in your physician. It’s a scary thought that racism mixed in with money and fame can make a person sway to a certain side. As a physician what’s the rational of given a deadly disease with nothing to cure a patient’s ill's but aspirin. 
    
Number VII of the "Principles of medical Ethics" states that a physician shall recognize a responsibility to participate in activities contributing to the improvement of the community and the betterment of the public health. (Judson, Harrison, & Hicks, 2006). This is one of many broken procedures that were just ignored. If you ask me there is no scientific reasoning for giving needless pain to families even unborn children. Wife’s who have children who in turn will have kids are affected by this genocide project. The officials in charge of this government-led experiment knew what debilitating symptoms the syphilis virus brings.
    
    Who gave those government officials legal power to strip away treatment for the medically ill? Uhmm… Sounds like Katrina. Well I guess if you have the power of the government backing you then you’re free to shred the constitution. What is out there for the government to hide? Do they hate the poor? These question concerns me and I find there actions to be very outlandish. In 1932 Follow-up effort organized into study of 399 men with syphilis and 201 without. The men would be given periodic physical assessments and told they were being treated. Robert R. Moton president of Tuskegee University at the time agrees to support study if “Tuskegee gets its full share of the credit"(Centers for Disease control and Prevention.2008).How can any human being turn a blind to eye to this how could their vision be so obscure. They say to benefit humankind it was necessary I say it was "scientific racism" all for the sake of fame.
    
     When one speaks about informed consent in this case study the doctor’s absolutely in no way shape or form knew the definition of those words. Who in there right state of mind would consent to this kind of medical research if all truths where told. For many participants, treatment was intentionally denied. Many patients were lied to and given placebo treatments—in order to observe the fatal progression of the disease. (Centers for Disease control and Prevention.2008). Keeping information from a patient violates there rights. Number II of the” Principles of Medical Ethics”  states that a physician shall uphold the standards of professionalism, be honest in all professional interactions, and strive to report physicians deficient in character or competence, or who engage in fraud or deception, to appropriate entities.(Judson, Harrison, & Hicks, 2006).
    
     Not allowing them to seek treatment tricking them into spinal tap…wow I guess there is no honor among thieves. It’s a shame that the medical world at the time could gain support from the surgeon general who himself was on a personal mission to end the venereal disease doesn’t add up correctly To continue for so many years knowing the truth I wonder if anyone stopped and thought about how the infected children would handle something completely over their heads as congenital syphilis.
    
     Using the term "Bad blood" I wonder whose veins was it actually flowing in? Because a certain race is poor and under educated no one should have let this continue for as long as it did. I guess it goes to show no matter what happens any thing can be legal as long as the government has a say in it. Researching the Tuskegee experiment I believe its events sounds like what happened to the Germans albeit their fight for existence was harsher. . If there any good it would be the National Research Act that was passed into law so proper principles were followed. If population control is what the government wants then for the sake of science they will test anyone and everyone they feel needs its. “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. It’s a good thing in today’s time we have the internet...that is until the government finds a way to control that too.