James H. Jones is the author of Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. The book was copyrighted in 1981. For two years, in 1974 and 1975, Jones worked closely with Fred Gray, the civil rights attorney who brought the class action suit on behalf of the men in the Tuskegee study. He also served a short internship as senior research scholar at the center for Bioethics of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University. Jones had full access to the Tuskegee Study records via the Freedom of Information Act in 1975. Jones is now a professor at Arkansas University.
This book discusses the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments that occurred in Macon County, Alabama. The experiments started in 1932 and lasted for over 40 years. They were a result of a sudden emergence in the need for health care for black men. In the years leading to the 20th century many physicians believed syphilis would surely terminate the black race. However, they cared little about this until they realized if action were not taken the disease would spread quickly through the white race, as well.
Throughout the 1920s the Public Health Service (PHS) attempted to ease the pain of the blacks in the South. Six different sites covering a broad type of conditions were selected to set up syphilis control programs; Macon County, Alabama was one of these. These experiments took place at the United States Veterans Hospital, on the Edge of the Tuskegee Institutes campus. In what was to only last a year, 399 black men with tertiary syphilis (all of who were in the late state of syphilis when the study began) and 201 without syphilis (control group) were used to study the disease.
After the first year was over the PHS and its corresponding departments (the Macon County Health Department and The Alabama State Board of Heath which consisted of whites, and the Tuskegee Institute which consisted of blacks) decided to continue the research over an extended period of time. These black men were denied treatment for syphilis, as were their family members. Some of the men died in the process of the experiments for various reasons; while others died of the disease itself, or from complications. The men were also denied treatments for other types of diseases or sicknesses, with the exception of aspirin. They were basically tortured for a span of forty years, unless of course they died in the process. Astoundingly, the experiments were in no way kept secret. They were periodically placed in medical journals throughout the years.
Finally, in 1972 after falling under great criticism, the PHS abruptly halted the studies, thus ending the cruelest experiments recorded in American history.
The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments were a tragedy of race and medicine. Never before had the Americans seen such horrific experiments on humans on their own soil. The thoughts of making hundreds of black males suffer horrible pains, and forgo proper treatment of syphilis, were unbearable to imagine. The men were denied penicillin in the 1940s and antibiotics in the 1960s. Although the Doctors claimed these were experiments, they were nothing more than observations and studies. Through the torture of these men, the doctors felt a miracle treatment or cure would be found. What is even more atrocious about the situation, is that many other black people contributed to the experiments.
The subjects of the Tuskegee Experiments were ignorant, for the most part. When it was discovered they had syphilis, the doctors only told them they had bad blood, a term used by physicians of the day to describe syphilis. The black males interpreted this to mean that they genuinely did have bad blood in their veins and that the doctors would treat them as necessary. They were also blinded by the bribes of free examinations, autopsies, and even burials. But after all they had nothing to worry about right? Surely their own people, such as the marvelous Nurse Rivers, knew what was best for them. These black men were worthless, poor, and expendable, so no ethical or moral boundaries were crossed, right? And if the experiments were not based on racism, then why were no whites tested?
In my opinion, the author does a great job of describing the events that took place for those 40 years, without being completely biased. He did argue in defense of the doctors, that they had good intentions in mind for the studies, but this came only at the cost of many black men. Still worse, the physicians never once considered treatment for the families of the men, who were part of these experiments, as they cared nothing for the troubles of the black people. The men who participated in the experiments had no clue to as what the experiments were for, yet they suffered horrible consequences.
Any other disease that they acquired during the 40-year span that they were studied went untreated, as aspirin was their only remedy. As a result of the experiments no valuable answers were obtained. Had it not been for the scrutiny of the Washing Star newspaper, the experiment would have gone on until every last man in the experiment had died. The Tuskegee Experiments clearly violated Alabama law along with Federal law; yet, still no action was taken to stop the experiments.
The author even suggested that society let these events to occur, because the findings were a matter of public record. Even after the program fell under scrutiny in the 1960s, no immediate action was taken to rectify the problems. By the time the experiments were finally stopped, many of the black men were dead, and the ones that were still alive, were far past the stage of successful treatment. Tragically the results showed no progress in the area of syphilis. As Dr. Lucas of the PHS said Nothing learned will prevent, find, or cure a single case of infectious syphilis or bring us closer to our basic goal of controlling venereal disease in the United States. The failure of these experiments was at the terrible expense of the black men who suffered those many years.
In my opinion, the Tuskegee Experiments are a complete disgrace to medicine and the American way of life. It is truly a disaster that the government never stepped in and declared these experiments unethical and immoral. It makes me furious, in a sense, that events like this could occur in our great country. However, if the project would have been successful in a way that ended all forms of syphilis known to mankind, would we praise and celebrate the experiments today? Now comes the real question. Are the sacrifices of a few needed for the salvation of many? If a cure for syphilis was found due to these experiments, and had it saved millions of lives, would the torture those few hundred men endured be worth it? This is a question only society can answer as a whole.
I felt that this book was very interesting and informative. I had heard many times the mentioning of the Tuskegee Experiments but never heard the whole story. Perhaps this is because a need to forget the experiments by many people so they can believe they never really happened, but the truth is there. I highly recommend this selection to other readers and insist that you persist in making this required reading, for many years to come.
