...Bioethics- Tuskegee Syphilis Study BACKGROUND FACTS In the early 70s, the Washington Evening Star newspaper published this headline on its front page: "Syphilis Patients Died Untreated." (CDC) This headline revealed one of America's most dishonorable medical studies, the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. From this very moment, the public knew the long-hidden truth about this notorious study. In 1932, the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) initiated the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Their goal was to investigate stages in advancement of syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease caused by bacterium that may cause death if untreated. (CDC) Furthermore, the study wanted to investigate how syphilis affects blacks compared to whites. They hypothesized that whites experienced more neurological complications while blacks experience more cardiovascular complications. The study used 399 poor black sharecroppers from Macon County, Alabama with dormant syphilis. An additional 201 healthy, unaffected men that were part of the study served as control subjects. Many bioethical values were largely violated. The physicians conducting the study misled the men from the beginning of the experiment. They purposely told men that they had “bad blood” and that they would treat them. Instead, these men were given a placebo. Physicians made sure that they did not receive treatment or help from anyone else. The reward for this “therapy” was free meals, free medical examinations and free burial insurance...
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...Research Work and The Tuskegee Syphilis Study Tammy Warner Grand Canyon University Ethics September 10, 2014 Research Work and The Tuskegee Syphilis Study Much of what we learn in life, we learn from other people. This can be accomplished by learning from other people’s mistakes or we can learn from making our own. This author prefers to learn from other people in hopes of not making a bigger mistake. There are many things that we can learn from The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male (Smith, 1999). The author would like to explore the ethical issues that were violated to recruit and retain participants in this study and how they are still affecting our profession today as well as how the public views the profession of nursing. History of the Study The Tuskegee Study began in 1932 with approximately 400 sharecroppers who had late stage untreated syphilis. The study included 200 controls that were free of the disease. The 200 men were never told they had syphilis. These men were only told they were in a study but not told what that really meant. According to Harold Edgar (1992) the Tuskegee study was not only an example of a scientific misconduct, but was ethically wrong from the start and was built upon deception. It was a study in which poor, illiterate black men had been deceived into thinking they were being taken care of (Caplin, 1992). As incentives to enter the program, these men were promised free medical care, free hot lunches,...
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...Chapter 1 - Abnormal Behavior in Historical Context Abnormal Psychology (PS265) Class Notes Guide Shoshana Sloman DEFINING "PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER" A psychological dysfunction within an individual associated with distress or impairment in functioning and a resonse that is not typical or culturally expected. Each criterion contributes something to the definition. Any one element, alone, would not constitute a psychological disorder. Criteria: (Standard for judging) Psychological Dysfunction: Breakdown of cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning. (Examples?) Where do we draw the line? Considered a continuum or dimension, rather than being present or absent. (dys = Greek for bad, abnormal, difficult) (ab = Latin for off, away from; norma = rule -- abnormal = deviating from the norm, from the rule) Personal Distress or Impairment: Distress: The individual is usually extremely upset about the dysfunction. This is not ALWAYS the case, however, as is often true with mania. Impairment: Interferes with normal activities, with achieving things that the person wants to. But not always. Depends on the severity. (Some simple phobias, for example.) Illustrates how most psychological disorders are extreme expressions of otherwise normal behavior. Atypical or Not Culturally Expected: Deviates from the average, the greater the deviation, the more abnormal, but that doesn’t automatically imply a disorder. (Pro athletes, talented artists.) More productive...
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