discussion board

So, I'm the jerk in my online course. Here's the proof:

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: 600 low-income African-American males, 400 infected with syphilis were monitored for 40 years. The purpose of the study was to examine the long-term affects of syphilis. The subjects of the study were 400 African American males, who were primarily poor sharecroppers. These men all had syphilis, but were unaware of it. They were also unaware of the true nature of the experiment. The most horrifying aspect of the experiment was that, even in the 1950's penicillin was proved to be effective at curing syphilis, the researchers did not treat the men's syphilis. They even prevented other doctors who saw the participants from treating the syphilis. As many as one hundred men may have died from complications of their untreated syphilis.

My response: Of course, research would be run differently now because we have a different anthropology! The research is unethical and cruel by today's standards. However, it's anachronistic to judge these researchers by today's standards. In their context African Americans were considered 3/5 of a person even if slavery had been repealed-- remember American history? In the researchers' minds, it wasn't too far off from animal testing (right or wrong). Have you studied any of the entire Social Purity Movement in the 19th and 20th centuries that happened in the US and the UK and colonies? This is not nearly as cruel as the studies British researchers did on Chinese and Indian prostitutes in Hong Kong and India. One must observe history within its context. The Victorian standards came with a heavy price. However, the closed race and gender of the study is remarkably advanced, albeit for the wrong reasons. It wasn't until the 1990s that medicine recognized the differences in male and female body systems-- that heart research needed to be performed on women as well.

Of course, I presume everybody who's horrified by this study buys nothing made in China or any other 2/3 world country that are known for such egregious human rights violations.

My response to another student's response: "Unethical" and "appalling" are extremely emotive words. Of course, one has a visceral reaction to this type of history. But, it is human nature after all, is it not? Look at the Babylonians, the Egyptians, the Nazis, modern China. For most of history, medicine has caused more deaths than saved lives. One most consider the context.