HLTH 31
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study-Applying the Four Ethical Principles
HLTH 31: Ethical & Legal
Issues In HealthCare
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study also known as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in
the Negro Male took place in Macon County, Alabama in the county of Tuskegee between 1932
and 1972. Tuskegee was often referred to as the “Black Belt” because of the number of African
American sharecroppers who inhabited the area and its rich soil. The actual research took place
on the campus of Tuskegee Institute. At the time of the study, there was no treatment for
Syphilis. The researchers told the study participants that they were being enrolled in a study that
would treat them for “bad blood”. “Bad Blood” was terminology that was locally used by the
community. The study initially involved 600 black men – 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not
have the disease. The study was conducted without the benefit of patients’ informed consent.
Researchers told the men they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local term used to describe
several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. (Tuskegee Study - Timeline - CDC -
NCHHSTP, n.d.) The participants in the study were offered free medical care, survivors
insurance, rides to and from the clinic, meals on examination days, free treatment for minor
ailments, and burial stipends. In 1947, Penicillin became the standard treatment for Syphilis;
participants in the study were never offered this option, the doctors were committed to observing
the study participants to the predetermined endpoint, death. The Henderson Act was passed in
1943, requiring tests and treatments for venereal diseases to be publicly funded, and by
1947, penicillin had become the standard treatment for syphilis prompting the USPHS to open
several Rapid Treatment Centers specifically to treat syphilis with penicillin. All the while they
were actively preventing 399 men from receiving the same treatments. (Mcvean, 2019) Some of
the study participants suffered adverse effects; paralysis of limbs, advanced syphilitic lesions,
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study-Applying the Four Ethical Principles
HLTH 31: Ethical & Legal
Issues In HealthCare
The Tuskegee Syphilis Study also known as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in
the Negro Male took place in Macon County, Alabama in the county of Tuskegee between 1932
and 1972. Tuskegee was often referred to as the “Black Belt” because of the number of African
American sharecroppers who inhabited the area and its rich soil. The actual research took place
on the campus of Tuskegee Institute. At the time of the study, there was no treatment for
Syphilis. The researchers told the study participants that they were being enrolled in a study that
would treat them for “bad blood”. “Bad Blood” was terminology that was locally used by the
community. The study initially involved 600 black men – 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not
have the disease. The study was conducted without the benefit of patients’ informed consent.
Researchers told the men they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local term used to describe
several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. (Tuskegee Study - Timeline - CDC -
NCHHSTP, n.d.) The participants in the study were offered free medical care, survivors
insurance, rides to and from the clinic, meals on examination days, free treatment for minor
ailments, and burial stipends. In 1947, Penicillin became the standard treatment for Syphilis;
participants in the study were never offered this option, the doctors were committed to observing
the study participants to the predetermined endpoint, death. The Henderson Act was passed in
1943, requiring tests and treatments for venereal diseases to be publicly funded, and by
1947, penicillin had become the standard treatment for syphilis prompting the USPHS to open
several Rapid Treatment Centers specifically to treat syphilis with penicillin. All the while they
were actively preventing 399 men from receiving the same treatments. (Mcvean, 2019) Some of
the study participants suffered adverse effects; paralysis of limbs, advanced syphilitic lesions,
