Persuasive Essay on The Tuskegee Syphilis Trials Were Unethical and Unjust

The Tuskegee Syphilis Trials were invalid and dishonorable in so many ways. Whether that was towards the African Americans themselves or the science and medical communities as a whole.

To start off, they were unfair and unjust towards the African Americans that were in the study. The researchers back then thought that the disease was affected by race; however, they had no proof of that claim. I feel that to keep it fair to those in the study, the researchers should have done a study on white Americans as well with syphilis to get the full spectrum of how the disease may work within the US population. The researchers could have also given the treatment like they said they would instead of letting the people be untreated and die. This made no sense to me why they would let this happen as there were a few treatments for the disease of syphilis at the time.

Another point is that there seemed to be no empathy or emotions for those involved in the study from the researchers. If the researchers truly cared about the people a part of the trials and their well-being, they would have given them treatment like they said and made sure those people were taken care of throughout the trials. The researchers would also have made sure that they could be kept alive as the participants were human just like them. These syphilis trials of 40 years really showed how cruel some humans can be and how emotionless people can be when there is racial prejudice involved.

The last point is there was not much liberty or respect towards the African Americans in this situation. The researchers never actually told the participants what they were doing to them or what they were studying; they just told the participants that they would be able to get free healthcare, which disrespected the participants' consent, personal freedoms, and their self independence. In order to correct this, the researchers could have explained the trials and what was meant to take place, as well as why those trials were going to take place. After doing this, the participants could have expressed their concerns through their personal freedoms and chose for themselves whether to give consent or not for their participation.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Trials were unethical and unjust for those who were made participants and could have been avoided if the researchers really thought the trials through before performing them. The researchers, themselves, are to blame for this indenciency towards humans; however, we can take this disturbing part of the past, not forget it, and learn from it to help studies today and even more in the future.