What Ethical Principles Were Violated During The Tuskegee Experiment

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The events of the Tuskegee Syphilis Project are unfortunate and heartbreaking. Such unethical practices in the conduct of research are thankfully a thing of the past. In this discussion, I will review why I believe the participants took part in the Tuskegee Syphilis Project, what ethical principles were violated during that study, and why or why not an experiment like that would be conducted today. The folks who participated in the Tuskegee Syphilis Project were living in poverty in the rural areas of Alabama (Fourtner, Fourtner, & Herreid, 2006). They were never exposed to medical treatment or doctors. When they were informed by health officials they were getting their blood drawn to test for “bad blood”, surely it did not occur to them, …show more content…

The men were coerced with money and were not provided with the freedom to participate or not, ask questions, or have the specifics of the study explained to them. It was an injustice to deny them treatment for their diagnosed disease and to deny them the explanation of all that the study entailed. Beneficence was violated because the researchers did not maximize benefits of the study and knew they were harming the men by withholding antibiotics and treatment for their syphilis. The well-being of those well-meaning and innocent participants was, in my opinion, disregarded to the highest and most severe and devastating degree. A study such as this one would not be allowed to be carried out today. It would not be approved by any Institutional Review Board and would certainly be dismissed, if not thoroughly, rigorously, exhaustively, and intensely questioned. In research, there is always the potential for harm and having sound ethics is fundamental for any study and helps to protect society (Doody & Noonan, 2016). In conclusion, exploiting research participants and conducting studies that are blatantly unethical is fortunately no longer being done. Although ethics codes, principles, and strict regulations have evolved over time, it is a continuous process that should never go by the wayside. References

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