Examining Tuskegee : Response 1

Susan Reverby's, Examining Tuskegee:The Infamous Syphilis Study, provides a close perspective and an example of the inner workings of institutionalized racism within the health care system. The 1932 study (conducted in Tuskegee, Alabama) was expected to draw information on syphilis and how it affected the human body but, it quickly turned into an immoral way of experimenting on black bodies.The notion of black bodies being able to endure more physical torment originated during slavery and was used to further justify the inhumane treatment and testing of African-Americans. Despite the many unethical procedures including spinal taps that were "dangerous and painful procedure[s] that involved inserting a needle into the spinal column to remove fluid" (44); the study went on for 40 years. The careless execution of this study pried into not only the physical wellness but the mental health of black men. Perhaps the most notable reality is the failed attempts to treat the infected patients even after the introduction of penicillin. The blatant disregard/neglect for the suffering and humanity of the subjects is apparent in the reaction of  the county medical society and the CDC after they discovered that a patient had been treated: '...you spoiled one of our subjects. You have treated someone who was not to be treated' (p.77). In many cases the  study resulted in the death of black men and to compensate for the deaths, researchers provided burial insurance. This compensation was in no way closure for the families who ended up with nothing from a study they expected to help treat the symptoms of syphilis. The burial insurance was really a way that researchers could in turn hold the rights to perform autopsies on the bodies.The deceptiveness of this study is something that really doesn't surprise me given the fact that there has been a multitude of similar events. From the unsolicited use Henrietta Lack's cells to James Marion Sims' experimentation on the gynecology of black women; black bodies have been stripped of their every human right for the advancement of white culture and for "the sake of science" for centuries.