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Tuskegee Project

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The Tuskegee study was a human study program to evaluate the progression of syphilis. The purpose was to study and record of the sexually transmitted disease. 600 African American men where held without their agreement to be studied.399 Syphilis cases and 201 syphilis free cases. The researchers convinced these men that they were being treated for “bad blood”. This stood for a number of things such as fatigue, anemia, and syphilis.
In exchange for the men’s’ cooperation they received medical exams, free meals, and burial insurance. This project originally was supposed to last for only six months and that six months turned into 40 years. The first press story about the study in 1972, caused the public to have an all-out cry for help for those men. They were being denied their rights by not being told in detail what was going on and they were not being treated for their disease correctly.
The assistant secretary for Health and Scientific Affairs appointed an Ad Hoc Advisory panel to review the study. The members where from medicine, law, religion, labor, education, health administration, and public affairs fields. Their job was to evaluate what should be done next. Forty years of human study and nothing knew was acquired or done. This is what caused them to get involved in the first place.
The final report of the panel showed the violations that where found throughout the study. This included not treating the patients and not thoroughly explaining the situation. They also found that because the patients remained infected with syphilis, many of their family member’s contracted the disease.
Many people in the community viewed this incident as very racist and maybe an act of genocide even. “The United States government did something that was deeply wrong, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens….

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