The Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Study

Words: 999
Pages: 4

In the United States, the portion of racial and ethnic minorities that are willing to participate in biomedical research has historically been less than whites. Racial and ethnic minorities may include; African- Americans, Latinos, and most citizens who do not identify as White-American. Various factors influence the decision on why racial and ethnic minorities deliberately refuse to be a part of research including experimentation, observation and different forms of study. However, the preceding aspect behind the majority of these cases, is an inherent lack of trust within the communities of minorities due to the historical mistreatment of minorities and unethical practices within the field of biomedical research.
In nine-teen thirty-two, the
…show more content…
Between 1932 and 1972, 600 African-American men and families experienced the foremost unethical sides of medicine and research in history. It began as a scientific medical research to find a cure for latent syphilis. In the 1930s, the U.S government strongly urged for medical research to find better treatment and ultimately a cure for the disease. At the time, black men and white men were seen as genetically different, so black men were the prime target for the experiment. Not only did this study affect those directly involved, but also future generations as well. In the book BAD BLOOD: THE TUSKEGEE SYPHILIS EXPERIMENT by James H. Jones states "The Tuskegee study had nothing to do with treatment … It was a nontherapeutic experiment, aimed at compiling data on the effects of the spontaneous evolution of syphilis in black males" (Jones pg. …show more content…
In 1974, the National Research Act was created to formulate more advances in medical ethics, as a result creating the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research. The constructed a standard set of laws and ethics for researchers and scientist to abide by when conducting experiments. The group also created laws that made it mandatory for all scientists and researchers to get consent from patients and all persons participating in research.
Since the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects and Biomedical and Behavioral research was created, there has been many changes and updates to the rules and regulations of medical research. In the late 70s an ethics advisory board was formed to critique and review current issues and topics in medical ethics. This was created to ensure regulations were kept up to date and on equal ground with the current state of