The Tuskegee Syphilis Study has become the most transcendental, harm-maker example of racism in the medical field. It is shameful, for in an area as important as the medical one, where lives come and go, issues such as this one should never be taken in consideration by anyone whos capable of destroying or saving a life. I has shown through the years that it was an unethical experiment, and it has brought resentments that we still face in this time of life.
It prone many African Americans, who were not aware, to decay their health, and to consequently loose their trust over the health system and organizations 1 through out the United States, and even to the people.
Disregarding the lives it took, and the many people who suffered from it, the Study made much harm in a social context than any other experiment in the history of medicine. In my point of view, it affected the society in which we live today in the three following features.
First and most important of all. It damaged the trust that many African Americans had toward the health system. 2
It has always been known that in order of something to work, people must first believe in it. A system cant and will not work as it should, when members of the group whom are going to be
benefited from it, believe that in exchange, they could be harmed. It is never going to go forward since members of the society which feed this system are pulling it backwards. And they have a reason and even a right to not be looking forward to seek help from the health system. And the only good thing this event brings is that, to see the offense the members of the white society who participated in the Tuskegee Study created, is going to let other members of the medical field realize that there is work to do to undamage and liberate African Americans from that distrust.
I would not like to generalize, since Im pretty sure not every African American feels this way toward the health system, but Ill take the statistics that show that a good number of the African American population (10%)3 does not, or did not at some point, trust in some way the health system.
The second reason, and a very important one is that this report consequently made people fear for their lives. It was the realization of a chain of events.
African Americans distrusting the system because of the Tuskegee Study, now found themselves asking whether or not it was a coincidence that they were the ones affected by it. They had already been the most affected ones by the AIDS virus, and also by the sickle cell anemia screening programs.4 They began fearing that the government wanted to get ride of a whole race. Is it really possible for someone to live under the shadow of a government which you think is not only not taking care of you but harming your community?
There is no way to play with trust. And as President Bill Clinton said in his Apology Speech for the Study done in Tuskegee, It was a time when our nation failed to live up to its ideals, when our nation broke the trust with our people that is the very foundation of our democracy.5
And the third reason I believe it affected our society, is that of course, we have to live with the shame of having harmed in some ways a culture of our own. Our brothers and sisters in my point of view. To see that our society actually damaged and disregarded people is shameful. It is not something you want to keep on ignoring but bring it up so it can rest in peace when the time comes and we all forget. But its there and its alive in others peoples hearts. It is a trace, and the only thing we can do with it is try to rectify our attitude.
And I am going to quote President Bill Clinton again, since maybe he explains it better that I can (or his speech writer explains it better): It is not only in remembering that shameful past that we can make amends and repair our nation, but it is in remembering that past that we can build a better present and a better future. And without remembering it, we cannot make amends and we cannot go forward.
In conclusion, what happened in the Tuskegee Study, is that researchers forgot the most basic rules on ethic. They forgot the pledge they did as doctors. And they were the only ones in charge. They, sadly, misused that power by not informing their patients of their current conditions and not letting them make their own decisions but taking them themselves. It is something we should all be aware so we wont commit it ourselves. And let our society get stronger but not merely because of fear, but because of trust. And allowing that word, trust, have a real meaning.
