Race, Medicine, & Society Notes - March 8, 2018
Other scandals during the time (P190)
Upon the media coverage of the Study; the Tuskegee study joined the "holy trinity' of American horror stories
of research. Cancer cells had been injected into aging patients at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in
Brooklyn in 1964-1965. Live hepatitis virus was given orally to children with retardation at the state-run
Willowbrook Hospital on Staten Island in New York in 1963-1966 (Reverby 190). These studies became major
medical scandals of the time. A compendium was made by students that included the Jewish Chronic Disease
Hospital and the Willowbrook cases; however they completely missed "Tuskegee" as a problem (Reverby 190).
of research. Cancer cells had been injected into aging patients at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital in
Brooklyn in 1964-1965. Live hepatitis virus was given orally to children with retardation at the state-run
Willowbrook Hospital on Staten Island in New York in 1963-1966 (Reverby 190). These studies became major
medical scandals of the time. A compendium was made by students that included the Jewish Chronic Disease
Hospital and the Willowbrook cases; however they completely missed "Tuskegee" as a problem (Reverby 190).
Tuskegee remembered as worst example of research malfeasance
Mistrust in doctors - bioethics
African Americans willing to get free medical care, wanted to be in study to become cleaner people and improve rights and view. PHS took advantage of this
Myth of Tuskegee Study: Were African Americans intentionally infected with syphilis? Not true, but persistent in American culture
Myth: NHS infected black people with syphilis:
- Innocent black person
- Fault of people that did the injecting
- Issues of consent
- Sinister
- Clear cut narrative
- Easy bar to clear for being ethical
Vs
Physicians not treating black people with syphilis:
- Diseased person
- Problems about African American male sexuality present
- More complicated narrative
- Harder to say that the doctors of the time believed what they were doing was ethical and was in the best interest of the people that they were studying
- In retrospect it did a lot of harm
- Makes the people of the present seem enlightened
Cultural Significance of the myth: Is the belief in the myth problematic? Mistrust of medical field. Easy to believe because of racism and use of black bodies.
Defence of Tuskegee: (from reading notes)
Doctors were still trying to defend themselves even up to the 1970s
- Doctors claimed they were helping the black race (Reverby 148)
- Sacrifices (The Control Group) had to be made (Reverby 149)
- Location didn’t matter (the scientists would’ve picked “a bunch of hillbillies from West Virginia.”)
- Nontherapeutic research (helping an overall population)
40 year span of research
- Culture changed drastically during time
- Early motivation: no treatment available so monitoring progression of disease is okay because no intervention available, also African Americans were receiving free healthcare
- Penicillin Era: “Sacrifice a few for the good of the whole”
Email papers to Kieran on Friday 11:59pm (March 15)
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