The Pros And Cons Of The Tuskegee Experiment

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As I watched the videos on these three studies, my mind filled with thoughts of worry and concern. Each of these studies were a bit unethical in my eyes. It is like the experimenters had no sympathy or morally concern for the participants and the damage that the experiments did to them. They were so determined to get the end results they predicted that they would go to extensive lengths to achieve just that. The Stanford Prison Study study was conducted to discover the way people who are incarcerated behave in such situations. The basement of a psychology building on the campus of Stanford University was transformed into an imitation prison environment. Zimbardo posted an ad in the local newspaper to recruit volunteers for this study to reveal…show more content…
Six hundred men were recruited for the study, 400 men had syphilis, and 200 of them was used as a control. At the time, the study was conducted there was no cure for Syphilis. The men received baseline blood workups, physical exams, and spinal tap to determine neurological damage. The particpants were told that the spinal tap was a necessary but in truth it was unnecessary and very dangerous and painful. By the 1950’s the drug Penicillin became an acceptable treatment for Syphilis. The participants for the Tuskegee study were not permitted by the doctors to receive the treatment. Public Health officials withheld treatment from men as an effort to discourage them from joining the military. Even when some of the men who participated in the study early on moved away, their names were circulated to clinics and health care facilities to prevent them from receiving treatment. The doctors kept in touch with them. By offering free life insurance as an incentive, they kept participants for the study. In the year of 1972, The Tuskegee Experiment became public and was talked in the newspaper. Some of the Syphilis patients died untreated. The survivors received 10 million in compensation in settlement and health insurance. The survivors felt that they deserved more than money compensation, they wanted a public apology. The president at that time, Bill Clinton, gave the participants a genuine, heart-felt apology. This study changed the future of the way research would be conducted. According to the National Research Act of 1974, individuals participating in research must give their informed

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