THE STUDY IS BORN
"They were targets of opportunity, strictly targets of opportunity. There was no humanity in this whatsoever. No consideration given to their station. No consideration give to them. They were just targets. They were
just convenient guinea pigs."
just convenient guinea pigs."
- Jean Heller, investigative reporter, in a student phone interview
"AN UNPARALLELED OPPORTUNITY"
The USPHS planned for a six month study, to record observations "on a group of 400 syphilitic male Negroes who have received no treatment and a comparable group who have received adequate therapy" ("Annual Report of the Surgeon General" 1938).
“The recent syphilis control demonstration carried out in Macon County, with the financial assistance of the Julius Rosenwald Fund, revealed the presence of an unusually high prevalence rate in this county ... This combination, together with the expected cooperation of your hospital, offers an unparalleled opportunity for carrying on this piece of scientific research which probably cannot be duplicated anywhere else in the world.”
- Surgeon General H. S. Cumming, in a letter to Tuskegee Institute director R. R. Moton (1932)
Portrait of Dr. Taliaferro Clark (History of Medicine 1932)
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James Jones, author of Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment,
on Taliaferro Clark “I think that such a study as you have contemplated would be of immense value. It will be necessary of course in the consideration of the results to evaluate the special factors introduced by a selection of the material from negro males. Syphilis in the negro is in many respects almost a different disease from syphilis in the white.” - Dr. J. E. Moore of Johns Hopkins University in a letter to Clark,
head of the United States Public Health Service (1932) |
A MORAL RUPTURE
At this time, legal codes for human experimentation were nonexistent. Regardless, the doctors knowingly made morally irresponsible decisions.
Were there prior bioethics laws put in place prior to Tuskegee?
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No, not really – not in the sense of formal codes. But what about the Golden Rule – do unto others as you would do unto yourself? What about the Hippocratic Oath? So no, in terms of formal laws, but in terms of the doctor-patient relationship they knew they were intentionally harming [the patients]. |
- Susan Reverby, author of "Examining Tuskegee" and "Tuskegee's Truths," in a student phone interview (2014)
THE FIRST STAGE: DRAFT
In September 1932, Clark sent Dr. Raymond H. Vonderlehr to recruit participants. Assisted by USPHS personnel, Vonderlehr advertised the study at local community venues. To test for syphilis, doctors drew blood samples from prospective participants.
One of the study's key clinicians, Nurse Eunice Rivers described the meetings as “overflooded with people coming in to get their blood drawn.” (Rivers 1977).
Clip from the documentary "Deadly Deception"
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To abide by guidelines set by Alabama officials, Vonderlehr offered mercury ointment and neoarsphenamine in meager doses to interested participants. The free treatment appealed to sharecroppers, who understood the term “bad blood,” but not syphilis.
“The people who came in were not told what was being done. We told them we wanted to test them. They were not told, so far as I know, what they were being treated for or what they were not being treated for. [The subjects] thought they were being treated for rheumatism or bad stomachs. We didn’t tell them we were looking for syphilis. I don’t think they would have known what that was.”
- Dr. J. W. Williams, intern at St. Andrews Hospital in the Tuskegee Institute (1987)
Letter from Dr. Joseph Moore to Dr. Taliaferro Clark
SPINAL TAPS
To determine whether syphilis affected African-Americans and Caucasians differently, doctors administered spinal taps to examine developments of neurosyphilis in patients. Spinal taps left patients suffering side effects for weeks.
"They simply do not like spinal punctures. A few of those who were tapped are enthusiastic over the results but to most, the suggestion causes violent shaking of the head, others claim they were robbed of their procreative powers (regardless of the fact that I claim it stimulates them)"
- Assistant Surgeon General Austin V. Deibert, in a letter to Raymond Vonderlehr,
on-site director of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1939)
on-site director of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (1939)
Study patients received this misleading leader, enticing them to continue their participation with a "special examination," despite there being no treatment provided. ("Letter to the 'subjects'" 1933)
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The movie "Miss Evers' Boys" depicts spinal taps
"A Tuskegee study subject undergoes a spinal tap to obtain spinal fluid for neurosyphilis testing. The subjects were duped into agreeing to the painful and dangerous procedure." (Center for Disease Control n.d.)
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