The Tuskegee syphilis study was a clinical study done between the years of 1932 and 1972. It was located in Tuskegee, Alabama. The study was conducted by the U.S. Public health Service, it was designed to follow the natural progression of syphilis in untreated patients. The patients used were poor uneducated African American's, they were coerced into being patients by being told they would receive various benefits if they continued with the study/treatment of their "Bad Blood" disease. By 1947 penicillin was available to cure syphilis but the patients in the study were left untreated and even pulled from treatment if they somehow managed to get it to ensure the results of the study would stay true. Even with all the bad that came from the study it did have a benefit, it made people realize they need to make rules and regulations behind clinical studies to protect the patients.
The apology was first directed at the survivors of the study, then to the county it was preformed in. After Clinton made the formal apology he gave ways for the apology to have merit in the future. He stated various ways to make the African American community's trust in the U.S. increase. Also Clinton gave reasons as to why the study went the way it did, that health care providers forgot their primary goal of maintaining health and instead worked on research to just improve the future.
My reaction to the apology was, why did it take so long. Considering how immoral the study was and being found out about in 1972, I would have thought the government would want apologize much sooner out of respect for the people that were harmed in the study. Having to wait the 25 years for an apology seems to me like the people who were responsible for the study were unable to take responsibility for their actions and just hid in shame in the hope it would not reemerge again to haunt them. In all the apology was a good one it apologized on the personal level and the community level for the actions done.
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I would agree with you on why did the apology take so long. 25 years later an apology was sent out to the community of Tuskegee but what about the dead? I think they would want at least want to hear this sooner. After all, what's done is done and we can't change the past. The apology from president Clinton was better then no apology at all.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the apology was a long time coming. And I also think that there were plenty of presidents before Clinton that should have been recognizing the issue of Tuskegee and apologizing for it. President Clinton was far removed from this situation but still recognized that the people of Macon County, the survivors and their families deserved an apology.
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