A Deadly Secret Exposed
By Crystal Eckles
Brianna Rosenthal writes of a deadly government financed study in an article that she titles “The Tuskegee Syphilis Study” The Tuskegee Syphilis Study started in 1932 in Tuskegee Alabama. The study was conducted on African American males only. The entire community of Macon County heard that government doctors were providing free exams to start a new health program. This is how African American men were lured in by white doctors; furthermore they lied to about the experiment that they would soon partake in, and soon would kill them. African Americans were already not seen as equals, so they did not receive the same health care as white people of the time. To them this was a win – free medical care.
The goal of the experiment was to find African American males who were in the second stage of Syphilis and to see what happens over time if the patient is not treated for the disease. It is said that out of 3,684 Africans that were tested for syphilis, 1,468 tested positive for the disease. Out of the 1,468 that tested positive, 408 were a part of the experiment. These African American men were told by the doctors that they would be receiving government treatment for “bad blood.” These men over a time frame of 4 decades never received any medication to treat or cure the disease. During the time penicillin would have been the best medication to treat syphilis, but the doctors withheld that from the patients, and just gave the men aspirins or anything other than penicillin.
The second stage of the experiment brought in 200 more African American men, and they were titled the control group. These men were not told the truth of the study that they would partake in either; instead they were told that they would be receiving treatment from government doctors for free also. Both groups in the experiment could not receive any treatment from any other doctor, any other clinic, or any other hospital. To keep from this happening, the names of the men that were a part of the experiment were given to local hospitals, and the hospitals were ordered to not treat these men. The men had to schedule appointments with the government doctors only. When the men started to die, the doctors did unapproved autopsies on the men.
Forty years after the experiment started, the experiment would be known nationwide. By this time over two-thirds of the original men had died and the other 200 were hard to locate. Charlie Pollard led a group of the survivors, and they put together information to file a lawsuit against the doctors who performed the experiment and the federal government that provided the financial support. Fred D. Gray, author of The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, was the group’s lawyer in the case.
In the first case, Pollard vs. United States of America, the survivors, controls, and the relatives of the survivors were rewarded $10 million dollars to split amongst them. This was not enough for Gray or the survivors. No amount of money could undo what the government and the medical professionals did to the men in the study and their families. On May 16, 1997 there was finally a public apology from President Bill Clinton. He apologized “for the harmful and prejudice injustices that the government had committed against the participants of the study.” Only seven of the men were still alive and able to hear the apology.
The Tuskegee Syphilis study was very unjust and targeted one group – African American men. These men could have been treated, but instead they were deliberately blinded by the promise of free medical treatment. The goal was not to see how a disease developed over time; on the contrary it was an excuse to wipe out a group. They were taken advantage of, they were treated as subjects not human beings, and they were used. They were used and mistreated by the government and the entire medical community of Macon County. Their families were harmed in the process because the disease spread to their significant others, and in some cases their children. This is a part of history that should not be forgotten and a part of history in which trust was shattered within the black community. A time that black people were handed yet another reason to be afraid; and another reason to not trust their government or the medical system.
Rosenthal, Brianna. "The Tuskegee Syphilis Study." UC Santa Barbara. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 June 2013.
By Crystal Eckles
Brianna Rosenthal writes of a deadly government financed study in an article that she titles “The Tuskegee Syphilis Study” The Tuskegee Syphilis Study started in 1932 in Tuskegee Alabama. The study was conducted on African American males only. The entire community of Macon County heard that government doctors were providing free exams to start a new health program. This is how African American men were lured in by white doctors; furthermore they lied to about the experiment that they would soon partake in, and soon would kill them. African Americans were already not seen as equals, so they did not receive the same health care as white people of the time. To them this was a win – free medical care.
The goal of the experiment was to find African American males who were in the second stage of Syphilis and to see what happens over time if the patient is not treated for the disease. It is said that out of 3,684 Africans that were tested for syphilis, 1,468 tested positive for the disease. Out of the 1,468 that tested positive, 408 were a part of the experiment. These African American men were told by the doctors that they would be receiving government treatment for “bad blood.” These men over a time frame of 4 decades never received any medication to treat or cure the disease. During the time penicillin would have been the best medication to treat syphilis, but the doctors withheld that from the patients, and just gave the men aspirins or anything other than penicillin.
The second stage of the experiment brought in 200 more African American men, and they were titled the control group. These men were not told the truth of the study that they would partake in either; instead they were told that they would be receiving treatment from government doctors for free also. Both groups in the experiment could not receive any treatment from any other doctor, any other clinic, or any other hospital. To keep from this happening, the names of the men that were a part of the experiment were given to local hospitals, and the hospitals were ordered to not treat these men. The men had to schedule appointments with the government doctors only. When the men started to die, the doctors did unapproved autopsies on the men.
Forty years after the experiment started, the experiment would be known nationwide. By this time over two-thirds of the original men had died and the other 200 were hard to locate. Charlie Pollard led a group of the survivors, and they put together information to file a lawsuit against the doctors who performed the experiment and the federal government that provided the financial support. Fred D. Gray, author of The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, was the group’s lawyer in the case.
In the first case, Pollard vs. United States of America, the survivors, controls, and the relatives of the survivors were rewarded $10 million dollars to split amongst them. This was not enough for Gray or the survivors. No amount of money could undo what the government and the medical professionals did to the men in the study and their families. On May 16, 1997 there was finally a public apology from President Bill Clinton. He apologized “for the harmful and prejudice injustices that the government had committed against the participants of the study.” Only seven of the men were still alive and able to hear the apology.
The Tuskegee Syphilis study was very unjust and targeted one group – African American men. These men could have been treated, but instead they were deliberately blinded by the promise of free medical treatment. The goal was not to see how a disease developed over time; on the contrary it was an excuse to wipe out a group. They were taken advantage of, they were treated as subjects not human beings, and they were used. They were used and mistreated by the government and the entire medical community of Macon County. Their families were harmed in the process because the disease spread to their significant others, and in some cases their children. This is a part of history that should not be forgotten and a part of history in which trust was shattered within the black community. A time that black people were handed yet another reason to be afraid; and another reason to not trust their government or the medical system.
Rosenthal, Brianna. "The Tuskegee Syphilis Study." UC Santa Barbara. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 June 2013.