Syphilis Research Paper

In 1932, syphilis, a disease that affects thousands of people in the United States, was rampant. To find a possible reason why and how this illness occurred, the U. S. Public Health Service (USPHS) conducted an experiment. This experiment was done to discover the course of latent syphilis when left untreated in black males. In order to receive accurate research, scientists tested four-hundred men with syphilis, and two-hundred men who were unaffected by this disease. To select these men, Dr. Raymond Vonderlehr traveled to Tuskegee to do physical examinations on men who were possible candidates. According to the article, “The basic design of the study called for the selection of syphilitic black males between the ages of twenty-five …show more content…
For example, after one doctor out of a group of physicians wanted to terminate the study, the rest of the group denied the argument. In this study, nothing was learned to find a cure to the disease, but doctors abused their power and conducted the experiment anyway. According to the article, Dr. J. Lawton Smith said for the doctors to take advantage of the study because there will never be another opportunity like it again. The doctors not only didn't treat the men with syphilis, but they took advantage of their human rights. After this study, there were numerous effects that all revolved around the mistreatment of patients. For instance, doctors believed that African Americans were more prone to syphilis than other races. This proved to be untrue, as their “scientific” claims were unjust and did not have correct research. Scientists and doctors that ran this study thought of the patients as “less than human” because of the prejudice against African American people. This claim alone resulted in the medical world being jeopardized because doctors could no longer be trusted. Another prevailing repercussion was the fact that this study did not help prevent syphilis, so the disease was still affecting thousands of people. As a result, this experiment was deemed unethical, as it did not advance the study to find a cure for syphilis, and it involved the mistreatment of African American men with this

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