HLTC02H3 Chapter Notes -Moral Agency, Aspirin, Penicillin
Document Summary
Week # 10: rethinking the tuskegee syphilis study: nurse rivers, silence & the meaning of treatment by susan reverby. Tuskegee syphilis study stands as an american prime example of medial arrogance, nursing powerlessness, abusive state power, bureaucratic inertia, unethical behavior and racism in research. The tuskegee study was a forty year (1932-72) experiment by the us public health service (phs) to study untreated syphilis in the male negro . 399 men who tested positive for latent syphilis thought they were being treated for their bad blood, a term used in the black community to encompass syphilis, gonorrhea, and anemia. Men were watched, examined, intentionally untreated, given spinal taps euphemistically referred to as back shots , promised burial insurance, autopsied, misled, and lied to until 1972 when this story broke nationwide. Following this there was national outrage, senate hearing, multimilliondollar law suit filed, a federal investigation, financial pay out to survivors or descendants of families affected, bill.