Tuskegee Airmen Syphilis Act

Tuskegee Airmen Syphilis Act
Student’s Name
Institution of Affiliation
Tuskegee Airmen Syphilis Act
Introduction
The prevailing standards of healthcare in the United States of America are the product of several reforms and reviewing of earlier policies. Unlike in the contemporary world, the early 1900s experienced the emergence of new strains of venereal disease that baffled the scientists and other experts in the medical profession. The outbreak was quickly affecting the populace especially the Black community that was suffering from social deprivation at the time. It, therefore, required that research and experiments were carried out to study the diseases’ properties such as contact, transmission, and progression in the human body.
Among other diseases, syphilis was one of the illnesses prevalent in the African American population, and it was already leading to increased mortality rates in the society. Moreover, there was no cure had been discovered and this prompted the government to initiate measures aimed at understanding how syphilis affected people. Following this, the US Public Health service under the mandate and support of the central government decided to study the progression of the ailment among the African American in Macon County, Alabama. The program was a corroborated USPHS, local healthcare officials, and the Tuskegee Institute. It was infamously known as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male and it commenced in 1932 (Shavers, & Burmeister, 2000).

The region was ideal for the experiment because it was a majority Black community and medical care was lacking at the time.
The African Americans were destitute and uneducated, and this made them more susceptible to the Syphilis that was transmitted through sexual intercourse. The presence of white physicians in Macon was not a naturally occurring and the residents who were mainly laborers enrolled to take part in the scientific research. According to reports from the CDC, six hundred men were chosen to take part in the study as test subjects to determine the natural manifestation of syphilis in humans. However, not all of them contracted syphilis only 399 had the disease while the rest 201 played the role of the control experiment. The subjects recruitment was under the disguise that they were being treated for ‘bad blood’ a condition associated with diseases such as anemia, syphilis, and fatigue. Furthermore, they received false promises of free food, transportation and most importantly the affordable medical care by professionals.
Ironically, Macon county of Alabama was also the training grounds for the Tuskegee Airmen who became decorated during the Second World War. There were reports that some of the victims of the experiment were men who had failed to be drafted in the military. It is important to point out that the participants were in the dark about the real intention of the doctors at the institution. They were made to believe that they got treatment, but instead, they were given dummy medical exams and pills and assured of free meals and insurance in case something happened (Shavers, & Burmeister, 2000). The Public Health Service had acted unethically on the account of scientific discovery without necessarily paying attention to human life. Initially, it the program had been commissioned to last only six months but ended up continuing for our decades. During this time, none of the patients were treated for syphilis even after it was later discovered in 1947 that penicillin was a cure.
For the study, spinal fluids were extracted from patients to observe the neurological properties of the bacteria. The outcome was devastating as a majority of the black men died or developed severe complications from the progression of the disease. It was only after 1972 when the whistleblower, Peter Buxton, exposed the unethical practices of the Tuskegee experiment. The surviving victims came to learn of the true intentions of the study after the media took up the matter. Although, it is not known clearly how the victims died some of the men transmitted the ailment to their spouses and children during birth.
A whole generation had been affected because of scientific discovery, and this was condemned by the outside world who blamed the Public Health Service for taking things to far. On the other hand, their disregard for human life was unacceptable leading to the implementation of the National Research Act in 1974. Its purpose was to lay down ethical reforms to govern the use of human beings for medical research by giving the participants the rights to demand transparency concerning any test s don on them. For the black community, injustice had been done, and their repercussions were far-reaching and still felt decades after the ordeal (Shavers, & Burmeister, 2000). The stigma of being associated with the Tuskegee has become unbearable for the families and this has culminated in the mistrust of public health care.
Conclusion
According to reports for the national institute of Health, the number of people of black ethnicity taking part in medical research remains lower compared to that of the Whites. In my opinion, the Tuskegee Experiment disregarded human life and this unacceptable for practitioners in the medical field who are supposed to preserve life. The fact that the participants were denied treatment goes against the profession and no justification can suffice. Finally, the discrimination against the black community is not a new occurrence and the experiment is a constant reminder that a lot has to be done to mend the rift.
Reference
Shavers, V. L., Lynch, C. F., & Burmeister, L. F. (2000). Knowledge of the Tuskegee study and its impact on the willingness to participate in medical research studies. Journal of the National Medical Association, 92(12), 563.