Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Throughout mankind’s history, men have tried many different ways to fight off the things that have hindered progress or taken lives. This is especially true with disease, which is very much still being researched. However, in more recent times, we have created a system of morals necessary in providing physical health care to patients, and this has revealed some problems with how certain treatments are done. A prime example of a treatment/series of treatments that was not within this moral code was the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which violated several of these moral statutes. In this paper, we will see what the study was and the implications it has on today’s society. The study’s proclaimed original intention was to test how Syphilis affected African-Americans rather than Caucasians, as it was thought that the disease had drastically different effects on the two different peoples. In order to do this, Dr. Raymond Vonderlehr was chosen by the U.S Public Health Service (henceforth the PHS), which was being sponsored by the government at the time, to start the field work for the …show more content…
When surveyed/interviewed several years after the study’s termination, many African-Americans expressed doubt in the government’s intentions in their health care, quite a few directly mentioning the Tuskegee study as an example of why they don’t trust the government (Bates, Harris). In 1990, one survey conducted even went so far as to show that 10% of African-Americans surveyed believed that AIDS were an attempt by the US government to extinguish them, and a further 20% of that population couldn’t deny that origin as a possibility, many referring to the Tuskegee study as an example (Brunner). Although public opinion has improved slightly in more recent times, it will take a good while longer before trust is fully restored to the African-American community (Bates,