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The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, or the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male, was a United States Public Health Service (USPHS) study that ran from 1932-1972. This study was less of an experiment and more of an observation, or “study in nature,” on the course of untreated, latent syphilis in Black men. This study is highly controversial—and not just based on historical hindsight.
In total, about 600 Black men were enrolled in this study. About 400 of them had syphilis, and the remaining 200 were the non-syphilitic control group. When a member of the control group contracted syphilis, they were moved from the control group to the experimental group. Macon County, Alabama, was selected as the site for this study due to findings from an earlier 1929 study backed by the Julius Rosenwald Fund on “the prevalence of syphilis” among Black men. According to this study, Macon County—of which Tuskegee's city is the county seat—had “the highest syphilis rate of the six counties surveyed.”<ref>Allan M. Brandt, "Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study," The Hastings Center Report, vol. 8, no. 6 (1978): 21-29, p. 22.</ref>
In the early 20th century, other clinics and physicians had studied syphilis treatment options. Like mercurial ointments, some treatment options were of little value, while arsenic treatment seemed to offer some relief to some syphilitic patients. Additionally, these options were only for early syphilis symptoms like inflammation. They didn’t cure syphilis, nor did they prevent some of the maladies associated with latent syphilis—like insanity, cardiovascular disease, and death. If scientists could watch syphilis as it progressed untreated, they might be able to learn from it. Furthermore, doctors in the USPHS wondered whether syphilis ran its course differently in whites than Blacks. While other scientists had not argued that these experiments should prevent the treatment of disease, “the doctors who devised and directed the Tuskegee Study accepted the mainstream assumptions regarding Blacks and venereal disease. The premise that Blacks, promiscuous, and lustful would not seek or continue treatment shaped the study. A test of untreated syphilis seemed ‘natural’ because the USPHS presumed the men would never be treated; the Tuskegee Study made that a self-fulfilling prophecy.”<ref>Brandt, p. 23.</ref>
==== The Study ====
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "in the summer of 1973, a class-action lawsuit was filed on behalf of the study participants and their families. In 1974, a $10 million out-of-court settlement was reached. As part of the settlement, the U.S. government promised to give lifetime medical benefits and burial services to all living participants."<ref>The Tuskegee Timeline, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm.</ref> These benefits were expanded in 1975 and 1995 to include wives or widows and children, respectively. Though all the participants and their spouses are now deceased, there is still a handful of their offspring still covered by these settlements.
<youtube>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzNANZnoiRs</youtube>
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