What Did The Tuskegee Study

Nazi Germany during World War II was extremely ruthless and unsafe. The country, military, officials, physicians, and other leaders showed that they clearly valued German lives over all others. In particular, the doctors and military used prisoners at the Dachau concentration camp to conduct experiments on vulnerable, helpless individuals. The main project focused on at this camp was the immersion-hypothermia project conducted during August 1942 and May 1943. The purpose for the project was to learn how to treat the German air force pilots who had been lost in the extremely cold North Sea. They used male prisoners of all religions and nationalities, and they were forced or bribed with promises. Some prisoners fell for empty promises to be released …show more content…
Findings were that the black community there had the highest percentage of syphilis in nation , with a percentage of 36. Their intentions were to treat the infected African American infected men with neosalvarsan. Soon after the study began the Great Depression began, and their funds for the study diminished. The USPHS did another survey and found about 399 men who had syphilis and ever never treated. This arose curiosity and began the study of the nature of syphilis. Soon after there was a group of controls added who did not have syphilis, about 200 men , and a small group that had been treated with small amounts of arsphenamine. The later subjects were dropped from the study due to lack of funding for treatment. It is no doubt that this was racially motivated and that the physicians did not see the subjects as equal human beings. The lack of integrity, supervision, written protocols, and the damaging effects this had on the African American community led to the formation of the Belmont Principles that should govern human subjects …show more content…
Most of the subjects were poor, uneducated farmers or sharecroppers and all were African American. Though they were not educated on many matters, especially syphilis, the doctors did not release they important information necessary to make judgment on their condition, nor did they did inform them of the study to even receive consent to participate in a study. Even if the subjects went to different medical facilities, their names were already put out to other physicians to not be treated. The subjects were adults and considered to be, for the most part, autonomous persons cable of deliberation and self-determination. There may have been some who may have not had full capacity for self-determination were infected, due to illness or mental illness. These persons were not protected, or excluded from the study. Instead they were tricked by the doctors, and a fellow African American nurse, whom they found comfort in. The doctors violated and overlook respecting these subjects because they did not see them as human beings, but instead inferior, syphilis-soaked, promiscuous