Ethical Decisions In The Play 'Miss Evers Boys'

The Tuskegee Experiment was a horrific event in which victimized untreated Black men with syphilis to see the effects. These men were unknowingly being deprived of treatment being a part of this experiment and were deceived to believe they were receiving treatment from the government. In the playwright Miss Evers’ Boys, the reader/watcher is taken on a journey to understand how the experiment came to be. More importantly its focuses on the relationship between the men of the Tuskegee Experiment and a nurse Miss Evers’. Through the provided evidence within the play Miss Evers’ Boys, it can be proven that given the circumstances, Miss Evers’ made the best possible ethical decisions she could as a black female nurse by fighting for the men and caring for them while maintaining the responsibilities of her job description. When reading Miss Evers’ Boys, Feldshuh leaves it up to the reader to decide the guiltiness of Miss Evers. But from the start he has the reader questioning her moral validity. “I solemnly pledge myself before God and in the presence of this assembly;
To pass my life in purity and to practice my profession faithfully; …show more content…
In the testimony Miss Evers’ discusses her father’s death and how she “I hated that “pneumonia” and I held that hate in the back of my mind…” (Feldshuh 17). By sharing the testimony, the reader becomes aware of Miss Evers’ background and how she began nursing to help people since her father wasn’t able to receive help himself. This shows that she is passionate about her work and wants to do good in the world of medicine, not bad. This supports the fact that if Miss Evers wasn’t stuck in the position she was then she wouldn’t at all have participated in this