I nstructions: Read Racism and Research: the Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study
ID: 3456779 • Letter: I
Question
Instructions:
Read Racism and Research: the Case of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study by Allan M. Brandt (page 66 of the Massey Reader) . After reading, answer the questions from below..
• Question 1:
In your own words, write 1-2 paragraphs describing the events presented in the essay. Answer each of the following specific questions in your response:
a. What were the main discussion points of the essay?
b. What were the results and consequences of the study?
c. Would it be acceptable to replicate this study today? Why? or Why not?
d. Was this study ethical/unethical? Explain why. (Much of the information for this first section can be found in the first chapter of the textbook)
Question 2:
Using one of the three major sociological perspectives presented in this course (Functional, Conflict, or Interactionist), explain the events described in the essay. For the sociological perspective you choose, apply the perspective to the article and draw one or more conclusions from your analysis ( you will need to refer to Chapter 1 of the Ferris and Stein textbook for the sociological perspectives).
Question 3:
Connect what you read in the essay to any material presented in this course – be sure to use at least 3-5 terms from the textbook.
Explanation / Answer
Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary. I have not answered question 3 as I do not have access to the textbook.
(Answer) (1) This essay is about a particular study conducted by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) in the year 1932. This study extended on the subjects up until the year 1972 when it was intervened. This intervention was much needed because of the extensively unethical nature of the study.
The subjects consisted of about 400 syphilitic African Americans and 200 non-syphilitic men. During the years that progressed, the invention of penicillin, an antibiotic, was able to help these syphilitic men combat their afflictions. However, measures were taken to make sure that these test subjects were not treated for the disease. As a result, more than 100 of these men had died from syphilitic lesions.
The essay discusses this study, the backward times during which they were conducted and its connotations. The purpose of this essay is to analyse the ethics or lack thereof in this study and how they would be completely unacceptable in modern times. Research departments have their own ethics committee and subjects are entitled to have their lawyers and full disclosure agreements. Such security measures make it a lot more difficult to conduct such inhumane studies today.
Considering that this study overshadowed a basic human right to have a disease or affliction cured, it was undoubtedly unethical. The essay mentions that the USPHS undertook certain measures to make sure that these individuals were not able to receive penicillin. One could imagine how these subjects might have been enlisted in local healthcare places and hospitals as patients that are to be refused. This is also a manipulation of authority by the USPHS. Furthermore, this is also not the kind of authority the USPHS legally has today. This department may permit a quarantine for a contagious disease, however, that is about all they can do. Causing a denial of medical treatment is not only unethical but is usurping one’s freedom.
(2) If one considers the sociological perspective of functionalism, the purpose of this unethical study becomes easy to understand. The Health Education and Welfare (HEW) halted this experiment in the 70’s. When they looked into the study, they could not find any logical reason for conducting the study at first glance. However, when one would broaden the lens and look at the common mentality of the society at the turn of the 20th century it became clear.
The researchers were apparently trying to use a Darwinist approach to somehow prove their assumptions that black people were a part of the poorer race in terms of genetics whereas, the white people were the dominant race. A doctor named W.T. English apparently felt that the structure of the skull of a black person and their genetics made them more susceptible to disease and a degenerative evolutionary process. Such doctors even argued that emancipation would bring them out of the control of the white man and cause them to easily succumb to their genetic shortcomings.
Considering this extremely bias and flawed perspective that contaminated an otherwise objective field of science, it was easy to imagine that such outrageous and ridiculous experiments were even a part official research. Through the functionalist theory, we see how two aspects of the research society are so greatly connected to each other in order to bring about certain functions or in this case, an unethical research.