Introduction
The Tuskegee Syphilis trial was a trial conducted by the United States Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with African-American volunteers. The study was conducted between 1932 and 1972 and involved 399 people infected with syphilis and 201 healthy controls (Barrett, 2019). The study aimed to explore the results of untreated syphilis to improve infection control and develop prevention methods. Initially planned for a limited period, the study was extended in 1936 until the end of the life of the subjects.
Discussion
Not a single subject received proper treatment for the entire trial duration, although it already existed at that time. None of the African American patients knew exactly their diagnosis and did not receive any adequate information about their health. As a result, many infected their family members and died from the disease’s consequences. The study was terminated due to severe criticism from the scientific community. The ethics scandals of the Tuskegee Syphilis trial have led to debates about human participants and the formation of ethical standards for subsequent medical research.
This study violated several modern norms of medical ethics at once. It was conducted using only African-American samples, did not provide adequate information for patients, did not include available treatments, and contributed to the spreading of an infectious disease (Barrett, 2019). The fact that the Tuskegee trial was explicitly conducted on African-American test subjects is due, among other things, to racial prejudices and cultural attitudes common at that time. People’s ignorance about the nature of their disease, which they called bad blood, allowed researchers to manipulate them to hide the truth (Barrett, 2019). Scientists acted not to benefit patients, which affected the latter’s fate.
Conclusion
The Tuskegee Study would not be possible without a cultural understanding of race as people would not distinguish people based on various racial features. Thus, it would be impossible to group people to conduct such research. In addition to race, such marginalized groups as sexual minorities, people with mental illnesses, people with disabilities, or people with specific occupations (e.g. sex workers) may be targeted. Research is conducted by people who can also be influenced by prejudices and cognitive biases, so unethical research is still possible today despite the existence of protection laws.
Reference
Barrett, L. A. (2019). Tuskegee Syphilis Study of 1932–1973 and the rise of bioethics as shown through government documents and actions. DttP: Documents to the People, 47(4), 11–16. Web.