Reflecting on Bioethics from the Tuskegee Experiment

At 78 years, Mr. Smith’s anxiety suggests that he might have directly participated in the
Tuskegee experiments that ended in the 1980s. The experiments were a form of unethical
racially-motivated medical study which targeted African American men in Alabama State where
the participants were deliberately infected with syphilis. Mr. Smith’s anxiety might indicate that
he never received treatment and has developed “tertiary” syphilis, which developed from latent
syphilis. Tertiary syphilis is a condition that occurs due to several years (5-30 years) of untreated
syphilis. Besides, he could have been infected by an intimate partner. However, a medical
checkup would reveal his status and its intensity. Jones’s (1993) novel Bad Blood narrates how
the Tuskegee experiment used African American men as specimens in a widespread syphilis
experiment without obtaining their consent or respecting their dignity. The novel exposed Mr.
Smith to his sociological medical realities and created initial awareness, which should drive him
and other probably affected populations to seek medical help and legal redress. According to
Zbar (2022), adults of Mr. Smith’s generation could suffer the lifelong implications of untreated
syphilis despite the existing advancements in therapeutic knowledge and procedures. Mr. Smith
should understand that his decision to agree to a wellness checkup would yield multiple positive
outcomes upon exposure to the book.
According to Dale (2023), considerable enhancements have been made to improve
research hygiene in the wake of the Tuskegee experiments. The medical profession has adopted
guidelines to ensure biomedical ethics, and that research participants understand the risks of their
involvement. For instance, researchers are compelled to do no harm and respect the autonomy
and confidentiality of their participants. Moreover, researchers should obtain the participants’
informed consent and respect their right to refuse to participate or exit the study. Participants in

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various studies are also urged to report suspicious acts or when researchers do not respect their
dignity. There are legal provisions to seek legal redress, compensation, and punitive measures
against unethical researchers. Mr. Smith should be confident of his decision to seek medical
assistance to allay all doubts regarding his syphilis status. 

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References

Dale, S. (2023). A Critique of Principlism: Virtue and the Adjudication Problem in
Bioethics. Voices in Bioethics, 9.
Jones, J. H. (1993). Bad blood. Simon and Schuster.
Zbar, A. P. (2022). Syphilitic Politics: Ethical Breaches, the Tuskegee Experiment and Beyond.
In Syphilis: A Short Biography (pp. 103-127). Cham: Springer International Publishing.