The video, The Deadly Deception, is a well-produced documentary on unethical behavior in government sponsored scientific research. The piece chronicles the forty year study of untreated syphilis in approximately 400 African-American men from Macon County, Alabama which began in 1932. The utilization of interviews with two survivors of the experiment, Herman Shaw and Charles Pollard, and experts in the fields of research, medicine, and civil rights, along with original film taken during the experiment, results in a believable and startling portrayal of the misuse of human subjects in scientific research.
The documentary creatively infuses a play about the now infamous experiment entitled "Miss Evers' Boys" which helps the viewer to understand the lengths to which the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) went to keep …show more content…
Testimony of survivors, experts in the medical field, and civil rights leaders provides a variety of perspectives (e.g., medical, legal, criminal justice) from which one can judge the experiment on the men of Tuskegee, Alabama which was titled "The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male." The video provides a chronological account of the government program that was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Public Health and was initially dedicated to the eradication of syphilis. The program, begun in the late twenties, changed its focus due to economics and ultimately was transformed from a treatment program to one where the participants turned from being patients to subjects. When the USPHS discovered that 35 percent of the Macon County men were infected with Syphilis, this allegedly overwhelmed the service in terms of holding to the original program goal. Then director of the USPHS, Talford Clark, saw an [End page 93] opportunity to study untreated Syphilis in African-American men within a "natural" experimental laboratory, Macon County, which also involved the Tuskegee
The documentary creatively infuses a play about the now infamous experiment entitled "Miss Evers' Boys" which helps the viewer to understand the lengths to which the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) went to keep …show more content…
Testimony of survivors, experts in the medical field, and civil rights leaders provides a variety of perspectives (e.g., medical, legal, criminal justice) from which one can judge the experiment on the men of Tuskegee, Alabama which was titled "The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male." The video provides a chronological account of the government program that was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Public Health and was initially dedicated to the eradication of syphilis. The program, begun in the late twenties, changed its focus due to economics and ultimately was transformed from a treatment program to one where the participants turned from being patients to subjects. When the USPHS discovered that 35 percent of the Macon County men were infected with Syphilis, this allegedly overwhelmed the service in terms of holding to the original program goal. Then director of the USPHS, Talford Clark, saw an [End page 93] opportunity to study untreated Syphilis in African-American men within a "natural" experimental laboratory, Macon County, which also involved the Tuskegee