Tuskegee experiment!!

Untreated Syphilis in the Male Negro: A Comparative Study of Treated and Untreated Cases

R.A. Vonderlehr, T. Clark, O.C. Wenger, and J.R. Heller Jr.

Ven Dis Inform 17: 260-265, 1936 

Why is this cool?

 In 1932, the Public Health Service began a study to observe the long term effects of untreated syphilis. They noticed that a large number of black men (male negros for those not familiar with oldspeak) in the rural South had syphilis. Would these men have sought treatment if they knew they had syphilis? Maybe. Could they have afforded treatment if it were available? Maybe. Did the researchers deny the infected men treatment? I don't know. Were these men made aware of their syphilitic condition? I don't know. Did the researchers have a duty to treat the infected and cure them? Maybe. Were all of the infected treatable? I don't know. Was the research necessary? I don't know.

Ok, she is not black,but you needed to see what syphilis can do.

 As you can see, there are a lot of questions that get lost in the emotions of the Tuskegee experiment. Too quickly, people condemn the U.S. government for allowing such a thing to happen without considering the reasons for the study. That is why it is so important to read the original work instead of depending on secondary, tertiary, or even quaternary sources on the research.

 So, let's begin. The experiment started with 399 syphilitic black men, 201 non-syphilitic, and 275 who had syphilis, but were treated in the first two years of infection. A detailed history for each patient was taken and then they just watched them waste away. What were the results? I don't know, because I haven't read it just yet. I do know that the group in charge of the experiment published at least 10 papers about what they saw!