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The ethics of social research

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was conducted by the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) beginning in 1932. The study examined untreated cases of latent syphilis in human subjects to determine the " natural course " of the disease. Three hundred and ninety nine black males from Tuskegee, Alabama, who already had late-stage syphilis, were recruited for this study along with a matched sample of 201 noninfected males. The subjects were not asked to provide their informed consent in order to participate in this project. Those infected with syphilis in the early 1930s were given the standard treatment at that time, which consisted of administering heavy metals. However, those men participating in the study were, not treated. In fact, the doctor in charge of the study noted " everyone is agreed that the proper procedure is the continuance of the observation of the negro men used in the study with the idea of eventually bringing them to autopsy " (Jones, 1993, p. 132). However, when antibiotics became available in the 1940s and it was evident that this treatment would improve a patient's chances for recovery, antibiotic treatment was withheld from the infected subjects, even though the researchers knew that if left untreated the disease would definitely progress to increased disability and eventually early death. According to some reports, " on several occasions, the USPHS actually sought to prevent treatment " (Heintzelman, 1996, p. 49). The experiment lasted over four decades, and it was not until 1972, in large part prompted by exposure from