The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Ethical Implications

Medical and scientific research have been the cornerstones of innovation and discovery for centuries. The development of anesthesia, surgical techniques, and the basic flu vaccination were conceived through decades of experimentation and research. There are always ethical implications concerning research, especially when involving human subjects. Though in our current time there are legal regulations enforced to ensure that trials are being conducted ethically, this was not always the case; the idea of what is ethical and unethical in medical research has also transformed. The Tuskegee Syphilis study is usually noted as the most unethical and inhumane use of unconsented experimentation on Black Americans in the nation’s medical history. However, …show more content…
James Marion Sims is renowned as the father of modern gynecology in the medical world. By 1850, Dr. Sims developed a surgical technique to repair vesicovaginal fistulas, a severe complication of obstructed childbirth, resulting in him becoming a pioneer of gynecological surgical advancement. His advancements, however, came at the cost of enslaved Black women who were subjected to inhumane and torturous surgical procedures, all without either consent or anesthesia. Discussed in grave detail throughout Harriet Washington’s book, Medical Apartheid, Sims acquired 11 slaves with fistulas and performed surgeries on their genitals repeatedly (65). He would also close their sutures and reopen them to perform the surgeries more than once. Male doctors initially held down the women during these horrific surgeries, but after being unable to bear the painful cries of the victims, the slaves were left to hold each other down when it was time for them to be experimented on again. Though this only scratches the surface of the disturbing procedures performed on these women without their permission, Dr. Sims is still hailed and commended as being a gynecological and surgical pioneer. Some have justified his actions by stating that he did the experiments for the greater good and that a few women had to suffer so that women for generations could be relieved of their pain. However, it’s important to note that he was performing these procedures specifically on Black slave women, not the White female patients who visited his medical office in Montgomery, Alabama. The choice of his victims demonstrates the view of Black bodies existing solely as bodies to be used for benefitting those in the dominant