Tuskegee Syphilis Study
Drawing from the assigned week 5 readings and resources about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, complete the following:
ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTIONS
Write a 1-2 page paper in which you answer all of the following:
Briefly summarize the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (Be sure to cite the source used for your summary)
The Tuskegee Syphilis study is considered a research atrocity and a horrific breach of ethics within the scientific community. Based on this example, choose one theory of Determinism (Religious, Scientific, Historical, Economic, or Psychological). Briefly summarize this theory in 1-2 sentences. Explain how the chosen theory relates to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study.
Based on your chosen theory, are humans free to make moral decisions of their own free will or are their decisions determined by outside forces? Are they morally responsible for their actions?
Your paper should conform to APA guidelines Links to an external site., which means that it should be properly formatted, and include both a title page and references page. Please note that your responses are graded on content, as well as grammar, spelling, and organization of ideas.
Tuskegee Syphilis Study
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The history of healthcare practice is characterized by triumphal innovations leading to significant life expectancy increases. Advances derive from diverse investigators and millions of patients used as experimentation subjects. The interaction between patients and clinical investigators is admirable, although it remains tainted by shameful historical occurrences. This paper summarizes the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and compatibilism and its application to this project. It also argues that humans should be held accountable for their actions since they have free will based on compatibilism.
Summary of Tuskegee Syphilis Study
For four decades (1932-1972), the United States (U.S.) Public Health Service (PHS) ran the Tuskegee Syphilis Study among African-American males in Tuskegee, Alabama, to investigate the impact of untreated syphilis. This thought came to be termed as the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. The participants were denied treatment because the primarily white government physicians deliberately withheld effective therapy for more than four decades while duping the subjects into having faith that the treatment received (vitamin tonics and aspirin as placebo) was effective in treating the infection. In a letter to the Tuskegee Institute Principal, Dr. Hugh Cumming (1869-1948) noted that the experiment provided an unparalleled opportunity to continue clinical research which could not be easily duplicated anywhere globally. In collaboration with Dr. Raymond Vonderlehr, the PHS investigators also lied to the participants about the lumbar puncture procedure, indicating that the “details of the puncture be kept from them as far as possible.” Dr. Vonderlehr enticed the men to participate by deceiving them that the lumbar puncture was therapeutic. This experiment coincided with the invention of penicillin as a pharmacological intervention for syphilis and the declaration of the Nuremberg Code (Tobin, 2022).
Determinism Theory and Relation to the E...