Tuskegee syphilis experiment (also known as the Tuskegee syphilis experiment) was an infamous clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee Alabama by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in poor, rural black man who thought they were receiving free health care from the U.S. government. Investigators enrolled 600 impoverished African-American sharecroppers from Macon County. For participating in the study, the men were given free medical care, meals, and free burial insurance. They were never told they had syphilis, nor were they ever treated for it. According to the Center for Disease Control, the men were told they were being treated for “bad blood” a local term used to describe several illnesses, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue.
The 40 year study was controversial for reasons related to ethical standards primary because researchers knowingly failed to treat patients appropriately after the 1940s validation of penicillin as an effective cure for the disease they were studying. Revelation of study failures by the whistleblower led to major changes in U.S. law and regulation on the protection of participants in clinical studies. Now studies require informed consent (with exceptions possible for U.S. Federal agencies which can be kept secure by Executive Order) communication of diagnosis, and accurate reporting of test results.
By 1947, penicillin had become the standard treatment for syphilis. The studies continued under numerous US Public Health Service supervisors, until 1972, when a leak to the press eventually resulted in its termination. The victims of the study included numerous men who died of syphilis, wives who contracted the disease, and children born with congenital syphilis.
This was a very unethical act, doctors took an oath to save lives but these researcher withheld medication