The film Susceptible to Kindness, arranged by Daniel Booth based on the play by David Feldshuh and several interviews, takes a more holistic approach to the question. As it plays on the heartstring of the audience it attempts to displace blame and make the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment an unfortunate event that happened in history. It first takes care to rename the important characters in the story, Nurse Eunice Rivers to Eunice Evers, Dr. Raymond A. Vonderlehr to Dr. Douglas, and the Dr. Eugene Dibble to Dr. Sam Brodus, and then it tells the story from the Nurse Eunice Evers perspective. Where she is allowed to defend herself, providing the final statement “They were susceptible to kindness… and I gave them all that I had.” In the play, Nurse
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Jones makes a much clearer image of who drove the study to its nefarious position, and it places the majority of the weight on Dr. Raymond A. Vonderlehr. Dr. Vonderlehr was the one who continued the study forward in the book after the money dried out and everyone left, and he made the decision to lie to the patients about their disease and ability to be treated and about giving them treatment just so that the study will receive funding again. Even in this instance it shows that the issue was not as simple as someone wanting to purposely deny Black men treatment for Syphilis page states, “[Nurse Rivers on the issue] ‘It didn’t affect me as a civil rights issue’ and could declare: ‘I don’t think it was a racist experiment [James Jones, 1993].’” Even in the Film it is said by one doctor that the black men of the TSE were the sacrifices of their race and their time, they had died so that the world can see them as medically equal. I believe this held true towards the beginning of the study, but as time went on and the scientists fell down a slippery slope of validating themselves and their work the black men started to lose value as sacrifices for society but rather gained valued for the ego the doctor. Dr. Vonderlehr is continuously shown to be excited about his work and findings and what it would do for his career and society rather than appearing to be interested in the people, “As examinations progressed Dr.
Jones makes a much clearer image of who drove the study to its nefarious position, and it places the majority of the weight on Dr. Raymond A. Vonderlehr. Dr. Vonderlehr was the one who continued the study forward in the book after the money dried out and everyone left, and he made the decision to lie to the patients about their disease and ability to be treated and about giving them treatment just so that the study will receive funding again. Even in this instance it shows that the issue was not as simple as someone wanting to purposely deny Black men treatment for Syphilis page states, “[Nurse Rivers on the issue] ‘It didn’t affect me as a civil rights issue’ and could declare: ‘I don’t think it was a racist experiment [James Jones, 1993].’” Even in the Film it is said by one doctor that the black men of the TSE were the sacrifices of their race and their time, they had died so that the world can see them as medically equal. I believe this held true towards the beginning of the study, but as time went on and the scientists fell down a slippery slope of validating themselves and their work the black men started to lose value as sacrifices for society but rather gained valued for the ego the doctor. Dr. Vonderlehr is continuously shown to be excited about his work and findings and what it would do for his career and society rather than appearing to be interested in the people, “As examinations progressed Dr.