Editing Tuskegee Syphilis Study (section)

{{Short description|1932–1972 human experiment in Alabama, United States}}
{{redirect|Tuskegee experiments|the album by Don Byron|Tuskegee Experiments (album)}}
{{Sprotected|small=yes}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2024}}
{{infobox clinical trial
| name = Tuskegee Syphilis Study
| image = Tuskegee-syphilis-study doctor-injecting-subject.jpg
| image_size = 270px
| alt =
| caption = A doctor draws blood from one of the Tuskegee test subjects
| study_type =
| dates = 1932–1972
| locations = [[Tuskegee, Alabama]]
| lead_researcher =
| funding = [[United States Public Health Service|U.S. Public Health Service]] (PHS)
| protocol =
| published_year =
| published_article =
}}

The '''Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male'''<ref>
*{{Cite news |last1=Newkirk |first1=Vann R. II |title=A Generation of Bad Blood |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/tuskegee-study-medical-distrust-research/487439/ |access-date=December 18, 2020 |work=[[The Atlantic]] |date=June 17, 2016 |quote=Known officially as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male ... |archive-date=December 18, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201218121728/https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/tuskegee-study-medical-distrust-research/487439/ |url-status=live }}
*{{Cite journal |first1=Shamim M.|last1=Baker|first2=Otis W.|last2=Brawley|first3=Leonard S.|last3=Marks |title=Effects of untreated syphilis in the negro male, 1932 to 1972: a closure comes to the Tuskegee study, 2004 |journal=Urology |date=June 2005 |volume=65 |issue=6 |pages=1259–62 |doi=10.1016/j.urology.2004.10.023 |pmid=15922414 |url=https://www.usrf.org/uro-video/Tuskegee_2004/Tuskegee_study.pdf |access-date=December 18, 2020 |quote=The study was officially titled 'The Effects of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.' |archive-date=September 15, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915180342/http://www.usrf.org/uro-video/Tuskegee_2004/Tuskegee_study.pdf |url-status=live }}
*{{cite web |title=The Tuskegee Timeline |url=https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm |department=U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee |publisher=[[U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] |access-date=December 18, 2020 |quote=It was called the 'Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male.' |archive-date=May 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510082812/https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> (informally referred to as the '''Tuskegee Experiment''' or '''Tuskegee Syphilis Study''') was a study conducted between 1932 and 1972 by the [[United States Public Health Service]] (PHS) and the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] (CDC) on a group of nearly 400 [[African American]] men with [[syphilis]].<ref name="Brandt-1978">{{Cite journal |last=Brandt |first=Allan M. |date=December 1978 |title=Racism and Research: The Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study |url=https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/1/3372911/1/Brandt_Racism.pdf |journal=The Hastings Center Report |publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]]|location=Garrison, New York|volume=8 |issue=6 |pages=21–29 |doi=10.2307/3561468 |jstor=3561468 |pmid=721302 |s2cid=215820823 |access-date=June 27, 2020 |archive-date= |archive-url= |url-status= }}</ref><ref name="CDC-2020">{{Cite web |title=Tuskegee Study - Timeline |url=https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm |date=March 2, 2020 |publisher=CDC - NCHHSTP |language=en-us |access-date=May 14, 2020 |archive-date=May 10, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190510082812/https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The purpose of the study was to observe the effects of the disease when untreated, though by the end of the study medical advancements meant it was entirely treatable. The men were not informed of the nature of the experiment, and more than 100 died as a result.

The Public Health Service started the study in 1932 in collaboration with [[Tuskegee University]] (then the Tuskegee Institute), a [[Historically black colleges and universities|historically Black college]] in Alabama. In the study, investigators enrolled 600 impoverished African-American [[sharecropper]]s from [[Macon County, Alabama]].<ref name="Reverby-2009">{{cite book|last=Reverby|first=Susan|title=Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and its Legacy|publisher=[[The University of North Carolina Press]]|location=Chapel Hill, North Carolina|year=2009|page=30|isbn=9780807833100}}</ref> Of these men, 399 had [[latent syphilis]], with a [[control group]] of 201 men who were not infected.<ref name="CDC-2020" /> As an incentive for participation in the study, the men were promised free medical care. While the men were provided with both medical and mental care that they otherwise would not have received,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Reverby|first=S.M.|date=1999|title=Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Nurse Rivers, Silences, and the Meaning of Treatment|url=http://ftp.columbia.edu/itc/hs/pubhealth/p9740/readings/reverby.pdf|journal=[[Nursing History Review]]|volume=7|pages=3–28|doi=10.1891/1062-8061.7.1.3|pmid=10063364|s2cid=35965490}}</ref> they were deceived by the PHS, who never informed them of their syphilis diagnosis{{refn|<ref name="Reverby-2009" /><ref name="Brown-2017">{{Cite news|title='You've got bad blood': The horror of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/05/16/youve-got-bad-blood-the-horror-of-the-tuskegee-syphilis-experiment/|last=Brown|first=DeNeen L.|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|language=en|date=May 16, 2017|access-date=May 14, 2020|archive-date=May 13, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200513010907/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/05/16/youve-got-bad-blood-the-horror-of-the-tuskegee-syphilis-experiment/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Associated Press-2017">{{Cite web|title=Descendants of men in syphilis study emerging from shadows|url=https://www.al.com/news/2017/05/descendants_of_men_in_tuskegee.html|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=May 10, 2017|publisher=[[al.com]] |language=en|access-date=May 14, 2020|archive-date=August 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809131454/https://www.al.com/news/2017/05/descendants_of_men_in_tuskegee.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Heller-1972">{{Cite news|first=Jean|last=Heller|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=July 26, 1972|title=Syphilis Victims in U.S. Study Went Untreated for 40 Years|language=en-US|work=[[The New York Times]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/07/26/archives/syphilis-victims-in-us-study-went-untreated-for-40-years-syphilis.html|access-date=May 14, 2020|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=February 9, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140209211124/http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40616F6345A137B93C4AB178CD85F468785F9|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="AP News-2017">{{Cite web|title=AP WAS THERE: Black men untreated in Tuskegee Syphilis Study|date=May 10, 2017 |url=https://apnews.com/e9dd07eaa4e74052878a68132cd3803a|publisher=[[AP News]]|access-date=May 14, 2020|archive-date=June 3, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603104352/https://apnews.com/e9dd07eaa4e74052878a68132cd3803a|url-status=live}}</ref>}} and provided disguised placebos, ineffective methods, and diagnostic procedures as treatment for "bad blood".<ref name="Gray-1998">{{Cite book|last=Gray|first=Fred D.|title=The Tuskegee Syphilis Study: The Real Story and Beyond|publisher=NewSouth Books|year=1998|location=Montgomery, Alabama|isbn=978-1579660123|page=76}}</ref>

The men were initially told that the experiment was only going to last six months, but it was extended to 40 years.<ref name="CDC-2020" /> After funding for treatment was lost, the study was continued without informing the men that they would never be treated. None of the infected men were treated with [[penicillin]] despite the fact that, by 1947, the antibiotic was widely available and had become the standard treatment for syphilis.<ref name="Duff-Brown-2017">{{Cite web|title=The shameful legacy of Tuskegee syphilis study still impacts African-American men today|url=https://healthpolicy.fsi.stanford.edu/news/researchers-and-students-run-pilot-project-oakland-test-whether-tuskegee-syphilis-trial-last|last=Duff-Brown|first=Beth|date=January 6, 2017|publisher=Stanford Health Policy|language=en|access-date=May 14, 2020|archive-date=June 17, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200617121756/https://healthpolicy.fsi.stanford.edu/news/researchers-and-students-run-pilot-project-oakland-test-whether-tuskegee-syphilis-trial-last|url-status=live}}</ref>

The study continued, under numerous Public Health Service supervisors, until 1972, when a leak to the press resulted in its termination on November 16 of that year.<ref>{{Cite web|title='I Didn't Want to Believe It': Lessons from Tuskegee 40 Years Later|url=http://advocatesaz.org/2012/11/15/i-didnt-want-to-believe-it-lessons-from-tuskegee-40-years-later/|last=Matt|date=November 15, 2012|publisher=Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona|language=en-US|access-date=May 14, 2020|archive-date=May 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200519123834/http://advocatesaz.org/2012/11/15/i-didnt-want-to-believe-it-lessons-from-tuskegee-40-years-later/|url-status=live}}</ref>  By then, 28 patients had died directly from syphilis, 100 died from complications related to syphilis, 40 of the patients' wives were infected with syphilis, and 19 children were born with congenital syphilis.<ref name="Kim-2018">{{Cite book |last1=Kim |first1=Oliver J. |title=A History of Medicine |last2=Magner |first2=Lois N. |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2018 |page=138}}</ref>

The 40-year Tuskegee Study was a major violation of [[Medical ethics|ethical standards]]<ref name="Duff-Brown-2017" /> and has been cited as "arguably the most infamous biomedical research study in U.S. history."<ref name="Katz-2008">{{Cite journal|last1=Katz|first1=Ralph V.|last2=Green|first2=B. Lee|last3=Kressin|first3=Nancy R.|last4=Kegeles|first4=S. Stephen|last5=Wang|first5=Min Qi|last6=James|first6=Sherman A.|last7=Russell|first7=Stefanie L.|last8=Claudio|first8=Cristina|last9=McCallum|first9=Jan M.|date=November 1, 2008|title=The legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: assessing its impact on willingness to participate in biomedical studies|journal=[[Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved]] |volume=19|issue=4|pages=1168–1180|doi=10.1353/hpu.0.0067|issn=1049-2089|pmc=2702151|pmid=19029744}}</ref> Its revelation led to the 1979 [[Belmont Report]] and to the establishment of the [[Office for Human Research Protections]] (OHRP)<ref name="HHS-2008">{{Cite web|title=Office for Human Research Protections|url=https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/|date=September 28, 2008|publisher=Department of Health and Human Services|language=en|access-date=May 14, 2020|archive-date=January 18, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118011337/https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/|url-status=live}}</ref> and federal laws and regulations requiring [[institutional review board]]s for the protection of human subjects in studies. The OHRP manages this responsibility within the [[United States Department of Health and Human Services]] (HHS).<ref name="HHS-2008" /> Its revelation has also been an important cause of distrust in medical science and the US government amongst African Americans.<ref name="Katz-2008"/>

In 1997, President [[Bill Clinton]] formally apologized on behalf of the United States to victims of the study, calling it shameful and racist.<ref name="CNN-1997">{{cite news |title=Clinton Apologizes To Tuskegee Experiment Victims |url=http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/05/16/tuskegee.apology/ |access-date=December 7, 2020 |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=May 16, 1997 |archive-date=June 18, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150618161620/http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/1997/05/16/tuskegee.apology/ |url-status=live }}</ref> "What was done cannot be undone, but we can end the silence," he said. "We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye, and finally say, on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful and I am sorry."<ref name="CNN-1997"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://clintonwhitehouse4.archives.gov/textonly/New/Remarks/Fri/19970516-898.html|title=Remarks by the President Bill Clinton in Apology for the Study Done in Tuskegee}}</ref>