Racism and Research- Tuskegee Syphilis Study Background
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is one of the best examples of research gone wrong. From 1932 to 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service recruited 400 Black sharecroppers with syphilis for research related to the natural progression of the untreated disease in hopes of establishing a treatment program.
The 40-year study was controversial for several ethical reasons, primarily because penicillin was determined to be the effective cure for syphilis in 1940. Rather than treat as syphilitic subjects and dose the study, or split off a control groups for testing penicillin, the Tuskegee scientists continued the study, with holding penicillin and information about It. Participants were prevented from accessing syphilis treatment programs available to others in the area. The study continued until 1972, when a leak to the press resulted in its termination.
This study led to the 1979 Belmont Report and the establishment of the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) vain the US Department of Health and Human Services. It also led to federal regulation requiring Institutional RP*, Board% for protection of human subjects in studies involving human subjects.
Short Project instructions-
You are to read 'Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study" by Allan Brandt (RfS7, 7th edition: RfS8. 8th edition). This article is an overview and unique of the study. You are to produce a 500-750 word bin post that addresses the following questions:
• Drawing upon our discussion of Research Methods and Chapter 2 of your textbook, what are some of the major ethical standards that the researchers in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study violated?
• Allan Brandt argues that the 'Tuskegee Study revealed more about the pathology of racism than it did about the pathology of syphilis- (p. 75). How did racism impact how participants were selected to participate in this study and the subsequent treatment they received?
• Research is thought to be an objective, value-free process. How does the Tuskegee Syphilis Study challenge this notion?