The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which took place over several decades in the United States, is considered unethical due to many factors. The main reason for this is considered to be the consequence, which became visible after a long time. Because scientists conducted studies on African-American populations who were injected with poorly studied and ineffective drugs for syphilis, often these injections caused serious side effects, which, over time, undermined the black population’s confidence in American medicine (White, 2020). Ethically, violations were committed at every stage of the study, beginning with its conception, which was based on racial discrimination (White, 2020). Moreover, during the course of the organization, the subjects were not sufficiently informed of their rights and the possible consequences of experimental medical invasion.
In Wolbrook, the study was based on the fact that mentally retarded children were deliberately injected with the hepatitis virus in order to trace the stages of development of the disease. The main justification for the researchers’ actions was that the risk of infection was already high in the particular institution (Resnik, 2018). Nevertheless, the principle of humanity was fundamentally violated in all aspects of the trial, making it possible to call the experiment completely unethical.
These stories demonstrate the need to create preventive measures to avoid even the risk of such situations occurring. It is important to create a multifaceted system to educate socially unprotected groups of citizens about their rights and responsibilities in the medical field, to create anonymous hotlines where people can share their questions and complaints (Resnik, 2018). Finally, it is necessary to develop an algorithm for the control and certification of all medical projects working with social minorities.
References
Resnik, D. B. (2018). The ethics of research with human subjects: Protecting people, advancing science, promoting trust. Springer.
White, R. M. (2020). More on the tuskegee study of untreated syphilis. JCO Global Oncology, 6, 1312–1313. Web.