What was the so-called Tuskegee Experiment by the US Public Health Service?
The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male[1] (also known as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Public Health Service Syphilis Study, or the Tuskegee Experiment) was a clinical study conducted between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama, by the U.S. Public Health Service. Investigators recruited 399 poor, mostly illiterate,[citation needed] African-American sharecroppers with syphilis for research related to the natural progression of the untreated disease in hopes of justifying treatment programs for blacks.[2] The 40-year study was controversial for reasons related to ethical standards, primarily because researchers failed to treat patients appropriately after the 1940s validation of penicillin as an effective cure for the disease. Revelation of study failures led to major changes in U.S. law and regulation on the protection of participants in clinical studies, including the necessity for informed consent, communication of diagnosis, and accurate reporting of test results.[3
