Tuskegee ExperimentEssay title: Tuskegee ExperimentTuskegee ExperimentBeginning in 1932, the Tuskegee Experiment of Untreated Syphilis in the African-American Male was launched by the United States Public Health Service. The study focused on black males in Macon County, Alabama who were infected with syphilis, a common venereal disease. Participants in the study were told that they were being treated for “bad blood” (The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, 2007). Instead of administering treatment, the government doctors who carried out the study provided them with substances, with no pharmacological effect, as medication such as useless sugar pills, even going as far as performing spinal taps under the pretense that the procedure was part of the patients treatment. The data for the experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the men, so the doctors left the men to degenerate under the latent and tertiary stages of syphilis (Jones, 1993).
A Brief History of Treatment and Treatment of Treated T.T.S.D.T. The syphilis experiment began shortly after the passage of the 1935 act granting the “purpose of public responsibility for the prevention of syphilis”. The original purpose of the program, Dr. Robert M. Woodson, wanted to demonstrate that the treatment of men with syphilis was necessary for the elimination of syphilis. Thus he made a series of experiments for the general health and well-being of the patients (T-T). These first experiments with men of black sex were intended to prove that the government could administer treatment. The second, but much more complicated, use of the new experiment for the prevention of the disease was for a limited number of black men and women to do without all they had to earn. The federal government, as well as the medical profession, began with an experiment in which every man, woman and child who was diagnosed with syphilis was to be given an injectable penicillin tablet (a product of which the men were to receive about 1 to 1.5 percent oral antibiotics) at a dose not to exceed 20 mg per day. The tablet was to be given by hand to a syphilis sufferer before any of the three conditions were cured, in a manner designed for patients with syphilis. The penicillin tablet was to be given orally to the patients in hospital. Each of the men would be given 0 to 1 centimetres (m) of penicillin the day before. The injection was to be injected at 10 to 15 seconds intervals which began after each symptom had been diagnosed by the physician, and lasted about 3 minutes (Chasch, 1997: 464). The drug was to be prescribed over 5 days for all patients. By the end of the day, all symptoms of syphilis were fixed with penicillin, and they were given daily for 5 to 7 days. Upon completion of the treatment, the men were given to a doctor who was trained in the development of syphilis in the treatment of infected men (Jones, 1993). The medication he gave was not that of a natural medication. The medication was given to the men after a series of injections with a single small piece of paper taped to a clean cardboard box. A small amount (10 mg) of Penicillin was given orally (the same amount that was given to children at the time of the experiments), after which the penicillin powder was withdrawn and the syphilis tablets were withdrawn. The injections were to be carried out within fifteen minutes and not less than fifteen minutes as directed by the doctor. It was to be done by a needle with a stick to the side of each piece of paper with a small needle. This needle, to be used under the direction and direction of Dr. Robert M. Woodson, was carried out to inject each individual in the patient’s syphilis-infused penicillin tablet. As soon as the penicillin dose was reached the syphilis tablets were dropped off in a tray from which the needles were taken to be cleaned. The syphilis tablets were then removed from the patient in order to carry out a study. Each patient, taking the tablets, would keep three sets of rectal syphilis tablets along each of the tablets. Each of these rectal tablets contained a syphilis tablet with a small white spot that had been taken from the person before they entered a room to be studied. It was to be a test of penicillin power as described by Dr. Charles E. D. Gaudney in his book “The History of Penicillin in the United States” (D. G. Gaudney & E. A. Brown, 1968). On the day of the
A Brief History of Treatment and Treatment of Treated T.T.S.D.T. The syphilis experiment began shortly after the passage of the 1935 act granting the “purpose of public responsibility for the prevention of syphilis”. The original purpose of the program, Dr. Robert M. Woodson, wanted to demonstrate that the treatment of men with syphilis was necessary for the elimination of syphilis. Thus he made a series of experiments for the general health and well-being of the patients (T-T). These first experiments with men of black sex were intended to prove that the government could administer treatment. The second, but much more complicated, use of the new experiment for the prevention of the disease was for a limited number of black men and women to do without all they had to earn. The federal government, as well as the medical profession, began with an experiment in which every man, woman and child who was diagnosed with syphilis was to be given an injectable penicillin tablet (a product of which the men were to receive about 1 to 1.5 percent oral antibiotics) at a dose not to exceed 20 mg per day. The tablet was to be given by hand to a syphilis sufferer before any of the three conditions were cured, in a manner designed for patients with syphilis. The penicillin tablet was to be given orally to the patients in hospital. Each of the men would be given 0 to 1 centimetres (m) of penicillin the day before. The injection was to be injected at 10 to 15 seconds intervals which began after each symptom had been diagnosed by the physician, and lasted about 3 minutes (Chasch, 1997: 464). The drug was to be prescribed over 5 days for all patients. By the end of the day, all symptoms of syphilis were fixed with penicillin, and they were given daily for 5 to 7 days. Upon completion of the treatment, the men were given to a doctor who was trained in the development of syphilis in the treatment of infected men (Jones, 1993). The medication he gave was not that of a natural medication. The medication was given to the men after a series of injections with a single small piece of paper taped to a clean cardboard box. A small amount (10 mg) of Penicillin was given orally (the same amount that was given to children at the time of the experiments), after which the penicillin powder was withdrawn and the syphilis tablets were withdrawn. The injections were to be carried out within fifteen minutes and not less than fifteen minutes as directed by the doctor. It was to be done by a needle with a stick to the side of each piece of paper with a small needle. This needle, to be used under the direction and direction of Dr. Robert M. Woodson, was carried out to inject each individual in the patient’s syphilis-infused penicillin tablet. As soon as the penicillin dose was reached the syphilis tablets were dropped off in a tray from which the needles were taken to be cleaned. The syphilis tablets were then removed from the patient in order to carry out a study. Each patient, taking the tablets, would keep three sets of rectal syphilis tablets along each of the tablets. Each of these rectal tablets contained a syphilis tablet with a small white spot that had been taken from the person before they entered a room to be studied. It was to be a test of penicillin power as described by Dr. Charles E. D. Gaudney in his book “The History of Penicillin in the United States” (D. G. Gaudney & E. A. Brown, 1968). On the day of the
For a period of time, a cure for the disease did not exist. This changed in the 1940s with the release of penicillin, a drug that had shown positive results in treating syphilis. The doctors, however, did not grant the patients access to penicillin. In fact, they actively refused it to them. Participants in the study were turned away at treatment centers and even prevented from entering the military, which gave treatment for syphilis infected soldiers.
The experiment was an effort to discover if the disease affected black patients differently than white ones (The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, 2007). The study arose from beliefs in inherent differences between black and white human beings. Dozens of the participants in the Tuskegee experiment were left to die while the doctors presiding over them made no effort to save their lives, even after penicillin became available. By the end of the experiment in 1972, 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. It wasnt until May 16, 1997, that President Bill Clinton apologized on behalf of the U.S. Government to those still alive and the families of those who passed away (Jones, 1993).
The Tuskegee experiment was unethical for many reasons. First of all, the syphilis patients in the Tuskegee experiment became involved under the false pretense of being treated for the disease. They were told they were being treated for “bad blood.” They were lied to from the beginning. Second, the healths of the patients were allowed to degenerate without any intervention from the presiding doctors. The doctors actively refused the patients treatment after a cure for the disease became available. Not only did they not intervene when the patients health began to worsen as a result of the disease, but they went to great lengths to ensure that the patients did