Bad Blood Summary

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1. The researchers who conducted the Tuskegee study were government doctors who worked for the Public Health Service. They partnered with the Tuskegee Institute in conducting the research. The Public Health Service is run by the government and the Tuskegee Institute was primarily an institute for blacks. They were motivated to see if there was a correlation with race and venereal diseases. 2. The stated purpose of the study was to see if there was a genetic correlation between contracting diseases, specifically venereal diseases, and being black. Another point that was made in the documentary is that they were looking to improve the health of black Americans because that kept the white people healthy. The research subjects for the study were 400 black males who were told that they had “bad blood”. It was mentioned in the NOVA documentary that “bad blood” was a very unspecific term. Although at the time it was implied that they had syphilis. 3.…show more content…
The reason that the research subjects were given for the tests and treatment they received goes back to the idea that they had “bad blood”. They were deceived in thinking that they were being treated for syphilis, when they were actually test subjects. They continued to stay in the study because they thought they could trust their government and the Tuskegee Institute to not cause them harm. Whenever a person who was in the study sought out treatment on their own, they were barred because they were in the government treatment program. 4. The Tuskegee study conflicted with the general standards of ethics because they did not provide informed consent. The subjects were never told that they were not actually being treated and they were also not provided with information on what was being done to them. Many of the subjects also believed that they were in fact being treated and then died from lack of treatment. The goal of the study was to not treat them so they could do autopsies when the subject eventually
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