Racism in the Tuskegee Experiment Essay

The Tuskegee experiment, begun in 1932 by the United States Public Health Service in Macon County, Alabama, used 400 black men who suffered from advanced stages of syphilis.   This study was not a means of finding a cure; the patients offered no preventative measures to prolong or better life.   Although the history and nature of syphilis was well understood, certain scientists believed that more research could certainly be done. In terms of whom to study, the doctors developing the format discovered a â€Å"ready-made situation† (Jones 94). Macon County Alabama was impoverished, like much of the country in 1932.   The selection process began during the depression, a time of separation and intolerance.   In the rural South, where we find Tuskegee, the men chosen were not seen, at the time, as equal in any sense of the word. Jones refers to prominent doctors of the region who, in the late 1800s, scientifically defined diseases that were peculiar to the race.   One such disease, Cachexia Africana, caused the subject to eat dirt.   The public did not question such obviously ridiculous claims at the time.   In fact, the public heralded these doctors and requested a manual for treating blacks in order to save slave-owners and the like money in paying for doctors (17).   Given the distaste for the ethnicity of the subjects, could their ethnicity have been a factor in the selection process? At the time, the medical profession had already made some false assumptions about the African American race in general.   Jones reiterated the white-held theory that black men had larger penises and little constraints when it came to sexual intercourse (23).   It was also believed that they were harder to treat for syphilis because African Americans were stupid. In examining this mindset, it becomes clear why the government erringly felt it should go to the poorer black communities in rural Alabama conduct a syphilis study.   Believed to be an immoral sex-centered culture placed at the level of animals, the government would put them in league with mice and rats.   As disgusting as the premise is, the doctors needed lab animals and set out to find them. If this were true – how could the government get away with it?   Blatant disregard for humanity and life could not go unnoticed.   However, the geographical area in question had just been the last state of the union to discontinue chain gang use in its penitentiaries in 1928.   The South had not yet begun to consider African-Americans as people – not in the slightest meaning of the word. Jones reiterates the sentiment of the doctors at the time and place with, â€Å"short of a ‘quick-fix’ by science requiring no behavior changes by blacks, there was no hope for the race† (26). The Health service claimed they informed the subjects of their disease, although an internship at the time the experiments began, Dr. J.W. Williams, stated the men received no such information.   He also claims the internships registered the data collected without understanding the nature of the experiment either (Jones 5). The term ‘racist’ as defined in the Random House Webster’s College Dictionary reads, †a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one’s own race is superior† (1072).   Given this definition, it is clear that the Tuskegee experiments were racist.   To withhold the nature of the experiments from the subjects, the name of the disease, the treatment of its symptoms and to feel no remorse in inflicting this sort of medical indictment on fellow human beings is not just racist, but also immoral and unjust. Jones points out the Health Services did investigate the treatment of these patients in an Ad Hoc committee.   The resulting medical treatments for the wives and children of the male subjects was offered with no cash restitution allowed (214).   In the end, the government did agree to $10 million dollars in payments to the â€Å"living syphiltics†, the next of kin for those already dead, â€Å"living controls† and the next of kin for the dead controls.   If you had been living with the disease and never treated, you would get a grand total of $37, 500; a paltry amount for the pain and suffering from neglect and racist bigotry (217). Works Cited Jones, James H. Bad Blood: The scandalous story of the Tuskegee experiment – when government doctors played God and science went mad. New York, NY: The Free Press, 1981. Random House Webster’s College Dictionary, 2nd Ed.   New York, NY: Random House, 1997.