DIG DEEPER: ETHICS AND THE TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS STUDY

DIG DEEPER: ETHICS AND THE TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS STUDY Spring 2021 Signature Assignment: Due 5/9/21 Unfortunately, the ethical guidelines that exist for research today were not always applied in the past. In 1932, poor, rural, black, male sharecroppers from Tuskegee, Alabama, were recruited to participate in an experiment conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service, with the aim of studying syphilis in black men (Figure 2). In exchange for free medical care, meals, and burial insurance, 600 men agreed to participate in the study. A little more than half of the men tested positive for syphilis, and they served as the experimental group (given that the researchers could not randomly assign participants to groups, this represents a quasi-experiment). The remaining syphilis-free individuals served as the control group. However, those individuals that tested positive for syphilis were never informed that they had the disease. While there was no treatment for syphilis when the study began, by 1947 penicillin was recognized as an effective treatment for the disease. Despite this, no penicillin was administered to the participants in this study, and the participants were not allowed to seek treatment at any other facilities if they continued in the study. Over the course of 40 years, many of the participants unknowingly spread syphilis to their wives (and subsequently their children born from their wives) and eventually died because they never received treatment for the disease. This study was discontinued in 1972 when the experiment was discovered by the national press (Tuskegee University, n.d.). The resulting outrage over the experiment led directly to the National Research Act of 1974 and the strict ethical guidelines for research on humans described in this chapter. Answer the following questions by recording yourself and using free Vimeo Record or VoiceThread: Must include video recording of yourself (face) and add a few slides answering the following information as if you are the instructor presenting the topic. Use pictures in the slides and important information that you think is key. Briefly discuss the study because I already know the study. Focus more on the important questions and give me your thoughts about the study. Ethics is a very important part of psychology studies. Should be at least 6-8 minutes no more than 10 minutes. INCLUDE Answer all the questions: Why is this study unethical or do you not think it is unethical? How were the men who participated and their families harmed as a function of this research? Do you think this still happens in current times? Support your answer with journal article findings. If you answer no or yes prove it with evidence and explain and show us the articles or information in your video. How could this effect people in this community in relation to the covid-19 vaccine and other health treatments? Figure 6. A participant in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study receives an injection. Visit this CDC website to learn more about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.