Historical Investigation
To What Extent Did The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment Contribute to African Americans and Their Distrust of Medicine and the Medical Community Today?
Identification and Evaluation of Sources:
This investigation will explore the question: to what extent did the tuskegee syphilis experiment on African Americans contribute to their distrust of medicine and the medical community today? I will analyze the extent of the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment and how important of a role it played in the distrust of African Americans of medicine and the medical community today.
The first source that will be analyzed is ”Under the Shadow of Tuskegee: African Americans and Health Care” written by Vanessa Northington …show more content…
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is remarkably one of the most recognized examples of unethical medical experimentation in America. From 1932-1972, hundreds of Black American men who had been diagnosed with syphilis were recruited for a study on syphilis under false pretenses and then purposely denied treatment so physicians could study and observe the disease to its fullest extent. Because the atrocities have been so well documented and disseminated, the experiment has casted a long shadow on the relationship between African Americans and the biomedical …show more content…
The symptoms of late stage syphilis include decreased muscle coordination, muscle paralysis, numbness of limbs, blindness, dementia and neurosyphilis, the spread of the infection to the brain ( Cite ). Syphilis that has been dormant over the course of decades causes damage to internal organs that ultimately can result in death if not treated on time or with care.( Cite ). Even though the effects of the disease were known to the researchers, they continued with their quest to observe the effects of latent syphilis on the body.
The Tuskegee syphilis study started from a previous study, the Rosenwald Study, conducted by the USPHS in which the experimenters set out to investigate the prevalence of syphilis infections in African Americans in the rural South. The original purpose of the study was to evaluate the possibility of mass treatment for those infected ( Cite ).
The researchers involved with the study discovered Macon County, Alabama, and found that the county had the highest rates of syphilis out of the six counties that were being studied. The results of the study concluded that mass treatment of the infected was, indeed, possible. However, due to the economic downturn that was the Great Depression, funding was not extended to provide treatment to the participants of the study, and
To What Extent Did The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment Contribute to African Americans and Their Distrust of Medicine and the Medical Community Today?
Identification and Evaluation of Sources:
This investigation will explore the question: to what extent did the tuskegee syphilis experiment on African Americans contribute to their distrust of medicine and the medical community today? I will analyze the extent of the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment and how important of a role it played in the distrust of African Americans of medicine and the medical community today.
The first source that will be analyzed is ”Under the Shadow of Tuskegee: African Americans and Health Care” written by Vanessa Northington …show more content…
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is remarkably one of the most recognized examples of unethical medical experimentation in America. From 1932-1972, hundreds of Black American men who had been diagnosed with syphilis were recruited for a study on syphilis under false pretenses and then purposely denied treatment so physicians could study and observe the disease to its fullest extent. Because the atrocities have been so well documented and disseminated, the experiment has casted a long shadow on the relationship between African Americans and the biomedical …show more content…
The symptoms of late stage syphilis include decreased muscle coordination, muscle paralysis, numbness of limbs, blindness, dementia and neurosyphilis, the spread of the infection to the brain ( Cite ). Syphilis that has been dormant over the course of decades causes damage to internal organs that ultimately can result in death if not treated on time or with care.( Cite ). Even though the effects of the disease were known to the researchers, they continued with their quest to observe the effects of latent syphilis on the body.
The Tuskegee syphilis study started from a previous study, the Rosenwald Study, conducted by the USPHS in which the experimenters set out to investigate the prevalence of syphilis infections in African Americans in the rural South. The original purpose of the study was to evaluate the possibility of mass treatment for those infected ( Cite ).
The researchers involved with the study discovered Macon County, Alabama, and found that the county had the highest rates of syphilis out of the six counties that were being studied. The results of the study concluded that mass treatment of the infected was, indeed, possible. However, due to the economic downturn that was the Great Depression, funding was not extended to provide treatment to the participants of the study, and