An' it be's de gubmints fawt dat de cullid genemens got de siffus,
dat rite, Bruvva?
On Wed, 20 Feb 2008 13:40:11 -0800, "Husband of All FBI n NSA Agents"
<HusbandOfAllFBInNSAagents@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmtuskegee1.html
>
>The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
>
>The U.S. government's 40-year experiment on black men with syphilis
>
>by Borgna Brunner
>
>"The United States government did something that was wrong-deeply,
>profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our commitment to
integrity
>and equality for all our citizens... clearly racist."
>
>-President Clinton's apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to the
>eight remaining survivors, May 16, 1997
>
>
>
>For forty years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service
(PHS)
>conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis.
>These men, for the most part illiterate sharecroppers from one of the
>poorest counties in Alabama, were never told what disease they were
>suffering from or of its seriousness. Informed that they were being
treated
>for "bad blood," their doctors had no intention of curing them of
syphilis
>at all.
>
>The data for the experiment was to be collected from autopsies of the
men,
>and they were thus deliberately left to degenerate under the ravages of
>tertiary syphilis-which can include tumors, heart disease, paralysis,
>blindness, insanity, and death. "As I see it," one of the doctors
involved
>explained, "we have no further interest in these patients until they
die."
>
>
>Using Human Beings as Laboratory Animals
>
>The true nature of the experiment had to be kept from the subjects to
ensure
>their cooperation. The sharecroppers' grossly disadvantaged lot in life
made
>them easy to manipulate. Pleased at the prospect of free medical
care-almost
>none of them had ever seen a doctor before-these unsophisticated and
>trusting men became the pawns in what James Jones, author of the
excellent
>history on the subject, Bad Blood, identified as "the longest
nontherapeutic
>experiment on human beings in medical history."
>
>The study was meant to discover how syphilis affected blacks as opposed
to
>whites-the theory being that whites experienced more neurological
>complications from syphilis, whereas blacks were more susceptible to
>cardiovascular damage. How this knowledge would have changed clinical
>treatment of syphilis is uncertain.
>
>Although the PHS touted the study as one of great scientific merit, from
the
>outset its actual benefits were hazy. It took almost forty years before
>someone involved in the study took a hard and honest look at the end
>results, re****ting 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."
>
>When the experiment was brought to the attention of the media in 1972,
news
>anchor Harry Reasoner described it as an experiment that "used human
beings
>as laboratory animals in a long and inefficient study of how long it
takes
>syphilis to kill someone."
>
>
>A Heavy Price in the Name of Bad Science
>
>By the end of the experiment, 28 of the men had died directly of
syphilis,
>100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been
infected,
>and 19 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis. How had
>these men been induced to endure a fatal disease in the name of science?
>
>To persuade the community to sup****t the experiment, one of the original
>doctors admitted it "was necessary to carry on this study under the guise
of
>a demonstration and provide treatment." At first, the men were prescribed
>the syphilis remedies of the day-bismuth, neoarsphenamine, and mercury-
but
>in such small amounts that only 3 percent showed any improvement.
>
>These token doses of medicine were good public relations and did not
>interfere with the true aims of the study. Eventually, all syphilis
>treatment was replaced with "pink medicine"-aspirin.
>
>To ensure that the men would show up for a painful and potentially
dangerous
>spinal tap, the PHS doctors misled them with a letter full of promotional
>hype: "Last Chance for Special Free Treatment." The fact that autopsies
>would eventually be required was also concealed.
>
>As a doctor explained, "If the colored population becomes aware that
>accepting free hospital care means a post-mortem, every darky will leave
>Macon County..." Even the Surgeon General of the United States
participated
>in enticing the men to remain in the experiment, sending them
certificates
>of appreciation after 25 years in the study.
>
>
>Following Doctors' Orders
>
>
>It takes little imagination to ascribe racist attitudes to the white
>government officials who ran the experiment, but what can one make of the
>numerous African Americans who collaborated with them? The experiment's
name
>comes from the Tuskegee Institute, the black university founded by Booker
T.
>Wa****ngton. Its affiliated hospital lent the PHS its medical facilities
for
>the study, and other predominantly black institutions as well as local
black
>doctors also participated. A black nurse, Eunice Rivers, was a central
>figure in the experiment for most of its forty years.
>
>promise of recognition by a prestigious government agency may have
obscured
>the troubling aspects of the study for some. A Tuskegee doctor, for
example,
>praised "the educational advantages offered our interns and nurses as
well
>as the added standing it will give the hospital." Nurse Rivers explained
her
>role as one of passive obedience: "we were taught that we never
diagnosed,
>we never prescribed; we followed the doctor's instructions!"
>
>It is clear that the men in the experiment trusted her and that she
>sincerely cared about their well-being, but her unquestioning submission
to
>authority eclipsed her moral judgment. Even after the experiment was
exposed
>to public scrutiny, she genuinely felt nothing ethical had been amiss.
>
>One of the most chilling aspects of the experiment was how zealously the
PHS
>kept these men from receiving treatment. When several nationwide
campaigns
>to eradicate venereal disease came to Macon County, the men were
prevented
>from participating. Even when penicillin-the first real cure for
>syphilis-was discovered in the 1940s, the Tuskegee men were deliberately
>denied the medication.
>
>During World War II, 250 of the men registered for the draft and were
>consequently ordered to get treatment for syphilis, only to have the PHS
>exempt them. Pleased at their success, the PHS representative announced:
"So
>far, we are keeping the known positive patients from getting treatment."
The
>experiment continued in spite of the Henderson Act (1943), a public
health
>law requiring testing and treatment for venereal disease, and in spite of
>the World Health Organization's Declaration of Helsinki (1964), which
>specified that "informed consent" was needed for experiments involving
human
>beings.
>
>Blowing the Whistle
>
>The story finally broke in the Wa****ngton Star on July 25, 1972, in an
>article by Jean Heller of the Associated Press. Her source was Peter
Buxtun,
>a former PHS venereal disease interviewer and one of the few whistle
blowers
>over the years. The PHS, however, remained unrepentant, claiming the men
had
>been "volunteers" and "were always happy to see the doctors," and an
Alabama
>state health officer who had been involved claimed "somebody is trying to
>make a mountain out of a molehill."
>
>Under the glare of publicity, the government ended their experiment, and
for
>the first time provided the men with effective medical treatment for
>syphilis. Fred Gray, a lawyer who had previously defended Rosa Parks and
>Martin Luther King, filed a class action suit that provided a $10 million
>out-of-court settlement for the men and their families. Gray, however,
named
>only whites and white organizations as defendants in the suit, ****traying
>Tuskegee as a black and white case when it was in fact more complex than
>that-black doctors and institutions had been involved from beginning to
end.
>
>The PHS did not accept the media's comparison of Tuskegee with the
appalling
>experiments performed by Nazi doctors on their Jewish victims during
World
>War II. Yet in addition to the medical and racist parallels, the PHS
offered
>the same morally bankrupt defense offered at the Nuremberg trials: they
>claimed they were just carrying out orders, mere cogs in the wheel of the
>PHS bureaucracy, exempt from personal responsibility.
>
>The study's other justification-for the greater good of science-is
equally
>spurious. Scientific protocol had been shoddy from the start. Since the
men
>had in fact received some medication for syphilis in the beginning of the
>study, however inadequate, it thereby corrupted the outcome of a study of
>"untreated syphilis."
>
>
>The Legacy of Tuskegee
>
>In 1990, a survey found that 10 percent of African Americans believed
that
>the U.S. government created AIDS as a plot to exterminate blacks, and
>another 20 percent could not rule out the possibility that this might be
>true. As preposterous and paranoid as this may sound, at one time the
>Tuskegee experiment must have seemed equally farfetched.
>
>Who could imagine the government, all the way up to the Surgeon General
of
>the United States, deliberately allowing a group of its citizens to die
from
>a terrible disease for the sake of an ill-conceived experiment? In light
of
>this and many other shameful episodes in our history, African Americans'
>widespread mistrust of the government and white society in general should
>not be a surprise to anyone.
>
>1. All quotations in the article are from Bad Blood: The Tuskegee
Syphilis
>Experiment, James H. Jones, expanded edition (New York: Free Press,
1993).
>
>
>
>
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