The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

5 min readFeb 28, 2022

Overview

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was the most vicious, unapologetic experiment in the history of the United States (besides slavery). A ‘study’ given by the United States Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to a group of 600 African-American males; 399 with syphilis, 201 without. These men were the sons and grandsons of African-American Slaves.

Unfortunately, the men who had Syphilis were unaware that they had it. Instead, they were told that they had “bad blood,” a term to describe unknown underlying issues. Most of the men never seen a physician before due to high medical costs. The study received attention due to the medical ‘benefits’ the men would receive from participation.

Initial Study Turned Disaster

Between 1932 and 1972, The Tuskegee experiment illustrated to the U.S. nation how discrimination still plays a major role in society. Free meals, free medical exams, and free ($50) burial insurance were the only benefits received by the black men participating in this inhumane study.

The study wasn’t really needed due to penicillin being the standard cure for syphilis during those times. Despite treatment, the participants weren’t given any. They were observed like lab rats instead. Some of the men went blind and insane from worsening syphilis exposure.

Can Government Health Officials Be Trusted?

U.S. citizens should feel safe in a land of the free. Unfortunately, the most vulnerable can experience inhumane treatment at the hands of legal, yet unethical practices. These men were left for deceived and left for dead by their own government.

Manipulative malpractices on the miseducated participants created a chaos that resulted in mourning families. Instead of considered their livelihood, researchers assumed that the color of the mens’ skin were greater than their humanity.

40 Years Later

In 1972, when the experiment finally reached the media, news anchor Harry Reasoner described it as “using human beings as laboratory animals in a long and inefficient study of how long it takes syphilis to kill someone.”(InfoPlease.com,2016)The researchers chose 600 black men only because they are seen as an inferiority. For years racism destroyed the Black man and left them at the bottom of the food chain.

An Unethical Reality

The Tuskegee syphilis experiment was highly unethical. The experiment was harmful on human bodies, and the participants were deceived because the experimenters faked the purpose of the experiment.

The unethical experiment cost the lives of more than 100 people and many suffered through the aftermath of the disease. What the participants believed to be a free medical treatment for their “bad blood” turned out to be a mad scientist research experiment to investigate the results of a serious disease.

A Discriminatory Sacrifice

The lives and health of many were ruined. The Tuskegee experiment was, no doubt, illegal. The experiment would have been less unethical if the information was collected from the 400 participants who had already suffered from the disease. There would not have been any major concerns during the experiment besides the progression of the disease from having no treatment given.

The Tuskegee Experiment was based off the theory that syphilis symptoms were different between blacks and whites; researchers believed that whites experienced more neurological complications from syphilis while blacks were more vulnerable to cardiovascular damage. The consequence of this theory was that participants were injected with syphilis.

Taking Advantage of the Weak

The doctors had no intention of curing the participants and sacrificed more than 100 lives at the end of the experiment. The researchers found it to be an easy process in selecting illiterate farmers from one of the poorest counties in Alabama. Majority of the men have never even seen a doctor before. These poor people were seen for their weakness and taken advantage of.

Too Late: Damage Control

It took a long, 40 years later for a participant involved in the study to be aware of the end results. The experiment was seen as a benefit for the men until publicity from former venereal disease investigator, Peter Buxtun, called out its unethical practices.

The truth only resulted in a $10 million civil settlement for the victims and their families. After the media exposure of the experiment, Dr. James Lucas of the Public Health Service stated that “nothing learned will prevent, find, or cure a single case of infectious syphilis or bring us closer to our basic mission of controlling venereal disease in the United States.”

Presidential Apology

On May 16, 1997, President made a formal apology to the families of the Tuskegee Experiment. Bill Clinton stated that the Tuskegee Experiment was clearly racist and made a mocking out of the “integrity” and “equality” that the U.S is supposed to give its citizens. There is no amount of money that could replace the destruction of hundreds of innocent black men.