Lying By Omission: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments

“For the most part, doctors and civil servants simply did their jobs. Some merely followed orders, others worked for the glory of science.” 

- Dr John Heller, Director of the Public Health Service's Division of Venereal Diseases

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment is a prime example of scientists taking the easy route regardless of the harmful and negative effects research can have on people and living things. I have heard references to the Tuskegee Experiments in regards to racism and minority abuse in the past, but never looked into it in depth until now. I do not remember hearing about this in High School, and I have never seen any documentaries on television, or have seen any news articles. I also do not remember Bill Clinton apologizing to five of the eight surviving members. Stories about minority abuse and mistreatment rarely make it to the front page, and if they do they do not stay there for long, and are hardly ever talked about again.

I have also heard of the conspiracy theory that AIDS was invented in a laboratory to further reduce the Black population. I have not looked into that issue too deep either, but I have seen what the AIDS virus looks like on a microscopic level, and it appears to be something that was constructed. The US government also conducted this experiment in Guatemala, and there they used 696 men. This experiment was conducted of forty years and during a time of blatant racism in the United States.

I would like to believe that as a society we have moved past that, but I am not sure because the overall black population continues to decline in America, and there is evidence that in the 1980’s the CIA purposely made crack cocaine readily available to African Americans. This issue goes beyond informed consent. This is more of an issue that no race or person anywhere should ever have to such a racist and despicable experiment. The mainstream media should also be put to shame for not giving more attention to issues like this.     

   

Related articles

• The Monsters Story (firstthings.com)
• U.S. Government deliberately infected people with STDs. (neianeia.wordpress.com)
• Researchers infected Guatemalans with STDs, commission affirms (cnn.com)
• Shocking Details about U.S. Medical Experiments in Guatemala (stevebeckow.com)
• Not the way to further medical research (bio230fall2010.wordpress.com)