Also of interest is the fact that the participants in this study were not injected with syphilis but merely studied. The chapter mentions that the public is mildly misinformed about this subject. I must confess, I went through almost this entire chapter thinking that indeed the participants had been intentionally infected, until I read that fact. What's a bit disconcerting is the fact that I know I learned about the experiment earlier at some point in my schooling and only now am I aware of this fact. While the chapter concludes that the experiment will hopefully impart lessons about the past, it seems at least in my case, and in the case of some of my peers, there is still misinformation floating around our educational system. It may seem like a minor detail, but as the book cautions, false beliefs and fears can lead to aversions to certain topics and practices. In this case, it is black's concerns over manipulative treatments leading to fears of medical care.
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Cover-Ups and Misinformation
The most appalling part of "A Notoriously Syphilis-Soaked Race", personally speaking, was the cover up engaged in by various factions after the public disclosure of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. On the one hand, the malicious activities like neglecting key medical records are almost expected. The government is just trying to cover it's own back, though it does not make it excusable. More inexplicable are the actions taken by the committee. What would cause a group of medical professionals, some of whom were trying to do the right thing, to deliberately destroy evidence and snuff out the voices of many eyewitnesses? Was the cause purely circumstantial, stemming from the group? Was it indicative of a wider feeling of white or medical professional guilt over the acts committed in the study?
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I completely agree with your statement because of the medical field black americans don't trust medical care as much as they could and therefore missing out on some of the best advancments in the field. It is because of this kind of history that our population not completely equal and we have sent ourselves back years to where socially we will be working to work toward equality in the medical field.
ReplyDeleteI think that this is a common occurance with any corrupt experimentation in history. For example, not many people know about the smallpox infested blankets given to Native-Americans. Regarding the Holocaust, Allies of Germany took awhile to take notice of it and address the issue. I think it all ties back to guilt and denial. It is hard for people to admit that they were/are wrong in their actions, especially when they are so immoral and wrong. There are a plethora of examples in history from the Soviet Union with Chernobyl to the Tuskegee Syphillis Study. Also, the fact that as Americans we are ill educated on events such as this one is a form of denial and inability to assume guilt. Just like the Japanese internment camps, it is probably briefly discussed in textbooks, but it doesn't really go into detail about what actually occured. It's displayed in more of a "let's sympathize for the victim" kind of perspective, which I feel is the reason our youth doesn't know about this major instances of history.
ReplyDeleteI think that we are always misinformed. There's always that fine print at the bottom of ads on tv and in newspapers. It shouldn't be any different in the medical field. They don't want to tell you everything that they are using because they may be experimenting or the risk would scare the patient (customer) away. It's a business and they cannot progress the business without incorporating new ideas and technologies and need people to try them out on. This example of the Tuskegee was racialized and unethical. People were misinformed about the experiment and suffered because of those uninformed risks. This is very common even through today's day and age.
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