Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment Essay

The Tuskegee syphilis experiments are perhaps the most well-known example of the unethical treatment of black individuals in medical testing. In 1932, a study was organized involving 600 black men, 399 of them had syphilis (CDC). The goal of the study was to see if no treatment was better than the treatments at the time, which were ineffective and occasionally toxic (Schwartz). The men involved were told they were being treated for “bad blood”, and while the participants were volunteers and were compensated, they were not informed of the intent of the experiment or the risks to their health (CDC). When penicillin became the standard treatment for syphilis in 1947, the drug was kept from the subjects, as researchers wanted to see the natural …show more content…
In terms of gender, Sims was incredibly progressive for the time, choosing to specialize in medicine specifically for women and opening the first ever Woman’s Hospital in New York in the 1850s (Holland). However, he exploited young black women, putting them through tortuous surgeries and repeatedly risking their lives. While he presented the circumstances to frame himself as the kind doctor helping women in pain, the only permission he really needed was from the girls’ master, saying in his book, “I made this proposition to the owners of the negroes: If you will give me Anarcha and Betsey for experiment, I agree to perform no experiment or operation on either of them to endanger their lives, and will not charge a cent for keeping them, but you must pay their taxes and clothe them. I will keep them at my own expense” (Flynn). His defenders’ view is that he shouldn’t be judged by today’s standards, that he was a product of his environment and should still be celebrated for his medical achievements. His critics’ stance is that his contributions to the advancement of medicine for women should not be ignored, but that the focus should be on the women who were forced to be his guinea pigs