Tuskegee Part 2 and 3

Going off of the discussion from Tuesday, part 3 has presented more evidence with/against Dr. Dibble. The first line of chapter 10 reads, "Physician Eugene Dibble thought that the Study would be remembered forever, but attorney Fred Gray worried that without the lawsuit somehow it and the men would be forgotten." Some questions that come to mind are, "Remembered for what reasons? Did Dibble find this experiment to be more beneficial than harming?" In modern America, the Study is remembered as tragic and harmful to those involved. On Tuesday, we came to three possible conclusions regarding Dr. Dibbles position in the Study. 1. He could've joined the experiment for the greater good of his race, as he was seen as a 'race man'. 2. Dr. Dibble could have entered the experiment and used his position to help the people of his race, but learned of the underlying horrors when it was too late to back out. 3. (If we're being cynical) Dr. Dibble joined the experiment for the same reason as the other doctors: to sacrifice hundreds of innocent people to get a result that could have come from (maybe) five people. So, the study could be remembered as a great scientific accomplishment, therefore giving praise to Dr. Dibble. On the other hand, it could have been a reminder to people and scientists alike to never make the same mistakes that they did. The sentence was phrased perfectly because no one will ever know what side Dr. Dibble took. There is too much evidence on each side of the story for anyone to give a confident answer.

The second problem I'd like to point out is how the volunteers became victims to the experiment. (I'm not saying they weren't victims, I'm just trying to be neutral.) At the time the experiments started it was clear that the men were volunteering, right? Some might have wanted to willingly contribute, but others definitely felt pressure. In part 2 we were introduced to Herman Shaw, "Herman Shaw did what any man would do to help his family manage in those day. He agreed to what he thought was free care." Herman Shaw had been struck by the great depression and his family was suffering from lack of funds. One day, the scientists came to him and offered him free health care, if he took part in the experiment. He might have agreed, but did he know all of the conditions before he did so? Many men in the experiment were taken for granted, perhaps because the white physicians thought they wouldn't understand the details because of the black men's lack of education. Either way I believe they would understand the sentence, "This might kill you and it will negatively effect your family." The way the volunteers turned into victims is when the experiment began to fray and the scientists overlooked small details such as keeping tabs on how many people they had infected and not properly distributing penicillin to all the patients that were infected. Of course it was hard to track down all the patients because records were not kept like they would have been in a controlled experiment. By not planning the experiment out a little more the physicians set themselves up for failure, no matter what reason they had for contributing.