INTRODUCTION
Beginning in 1932 the Tuskegee Syphilis Study took 400 African American men who suffered from syphilis and promised free, new treatments. However, they received no real treatment because the study was not on treatments of syphilis but on the effects of syphilis when it goes untreated. Even after penicillin was determined to be an effective treatment for syphilis the men were never given this treatment. In fact, they gave the subjects spinal taps without anesthesia, telling them it was a new treatment, when they really wanted to test the effects of syphilis on the human brain (Ogungbure, 2011). It would not be until 1972 when the bulk of study’s results were published that Centers of Disease Control halted the experiment and questioned the ethics of the study conducted. At that time only 72 of the original 400 were alive, many having succumbed years before due to the untreated syphilis (Heintzelman, 2003).
DISCUSSION
The four principles of healthcare ethics were all violated in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The principle of Autonomy requires that patients or test subjects must have all the facts in order to make informed decisions about their treatment. Because the men involved in the Tuskegee were not made aware of the true nature of the study their ethics were violated. They believed they were being treated and the researchers knew that was not true. The second principle, Justice, regards fair treatment for all equally. That being said the researchers intentionally may have targeted African Americans for racial reasons and they were, also, denied the fair treatment that others were receiving. Again, when penicillin was accepted as a curative practice for syphilis, they were forced to continue to study untreated. (Ogungbure, 2011). The third principle, Beneficence, was violated because it requires that the acts be for the good of the patient or subject. These researchers knowingly lied about their intentions, denied appropriate treatment and allowed pain and suffering that certainly did not benefit the subjects at all; after all more than 300 died. Finally, the principle of Nonmaleficence requires that the nature of research or treatment must not be needlessly harmful to the individual or society (Stanford University, 2016). Again, the allowance of the painful procedures with no intention of treatment, denial of existing treatments and the continuation of the study through to the patient’s death shows little regard for their life or well-being.
CONCLUSION
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study is easily one of the most unethical research endeavors of all time. The men entered it under false pretenses and were continually lied to throughout the many years study. The lack of treatment and painful testing is very much like torture. Most disturbingly is that once a cure was found, again penicillin, and became common place, these men were left to continue to suffer from a horrifying disease that was completely curable. That said it is not difficult to see that the Tuskegee Syphilis Study violated every ethical principle from the start and continued to do so over a, more than, 30 year experiment.
REFERENCES
Heintzelman, C.A. (2003). The tuskegee syphilis study and its implications for the 21st century.
The New Social Worker Magazine. 10(4). 1. Retrieved June 12, 2016, from http://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/ethics-articles/The_Tuskegee_Syphilis_Study_and_Its_Implications_for_the_21st_Century/.
Stanford University. (2016).What are the basic principles of
medical ethics? Stanford University. 1. Retrieved June 12, 2016, from https://web.stanford.edu/class/siw198q/websites/reprotech/New%20Ways%20of%20Making%20Babies/EthicVoc.htm.
Ogungbure, A.A. (2011). The tuskegee syphilis study: Some ethical reflections. Thought and
Practice: The Journal of Philosophical Association of Kenya. 3(2). 75-92.
