Tuskegee Syphilis Study: Why This Experiment was Unethical

Unethical Treatment Of Research Study Participant
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Unethical Treatment of Research Study Participant
Option One: Tuskegee Syphilis Study
The Tuskegee Syphilis study is considered to be the most unethical research to ever be conducted. The research was done between 1932 to 1972 in the United States of America. The Tuskegee research initially involved 600 Black men – 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not have the disease. Notably, the purpose of the research was to observe the natural progression of syphilis in black men by withholding treatment and misleading participants into thinking they were receiving medical care. Also, it failed to acquire informed consent from participants which is unethical. According to Alsan and Wanamaker (2017), Tuskegee Study became a symbol of their mistreatment by the medical establishment, a metaphor for deceit, conspiracy, malpractice, and neglect, if not outright genocide.
First, according to CDC, the Tuskegee researchers did not collect participants' consent which is crucial for ethics in research. Collecting consent ensures that participants are well informed about the research topic and they can make a choice if they want to participate in the study or not. However, the Tuskegee study did not acquire consent from the participants but rather told the participants that they were being treated for bad blood a name that referred to ailments such as anemia, fatigue, and syphilis by the locals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2022).
Second, the participants were not informed of the study and the potential dangers of the study. The Tuskegee took a...