The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease. It begins as a painless sore in the rectum, genital, or mouth region and then spreads as a rash over the body. Over time, without treatment, it can cause severe damage to the brain, eyes, nerves, or heart. Without treatment, syphilis can be deadly. Penicillin is the most common and arguably the safest treatment for syphilis. The doses can range from a singular shot to multiple, depending on the disease’s stage in the body. In 1932, in Tuskegee, Alabama, an experiment was created. The study, originally named the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Population” involved 600 total black men, 399 already having contracted syphilis and 201 without the disease. According to Tuskegee University, …show more content…
After years of complaints, whistleblowing, and government contacts to stop the “experiment”, the story was finally leaked to the press in 1972. This led to the demise of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. TVs and news articles outed the unjust malpractices the white doctors performed on the black population of Tuskegee, Alabama. Even though the experiment was “concluded”, the tests continued for just over twenty years past 1972. As a result of the lies and lives that were taken advantage of, drastically decreased the number of African American organ donors, and participation in legitimate and supportive healthcare systems, and stunted the relationship growth between whites and black people in Macon and surrounding counties. We are learning about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study to understand what unethical experiments are and the importance of avoiding unethical and improper experiments in statistics. Unethical experiments are detrimental to anyone and anything involved in the study. In the Syphilis Study, the unethical and genocidal aspects caused mass mistrust in the medical field when trying to support black and marginalized communities, specifically in the South. …show more content…
Not all, but many unethical experiments resulted in genocide or minority-targeted tests, such as the Auschwitz tests on twins during World War 2, or the Standford Prison Experiment in 1971. It’s important to understand the impact of experiments and how harmful they can be when taken too far or when built on ill intentions. Scientists and mathematicians should know when experiments are taken too far and when to stop them. The legacy the Tuskegee Syphilis Study has created still lives on in America. As stated before, the study created a hostile and inefficient relationship between black communities in the South and the doctors who legitimately wanted to help. Knowing that African American men have the worst health demographic compared to any other race of sex in America, shows the everlasting baggage they must carry from falling victim to tests like these. Tuskegee’s scientifically racist history still causes extreme vigilance within the male black communities of Alabama.

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