Unethical Studies!

The Tuskegee and Guatemala syphilis studies are unethical! For the Tuskegee studies, "The United States Public Health Service, in trying to learn more about syphilis and justify treatment programs for blacks, withheld adequate treatment from a group of poor black men who had the disease, causing needless pain and suffering for the men and their loved ones." This was unethical because the group of men that were untreated didn't agree to be left untreated. For some reason, the government chose to not provide treatment for a group of poor black men which was unfair. Im assuming that they didn't provide treatment because of the fact that they were poor, and possibly because they were African American. For the Guatemala study their subjects were prison inmates, soldiers, and mental patients. They were infected with the disease by spinal injections or by sleeping with an infected prostitute. What this study proved was that syphilis could be treated by taking a medicine called penicillin.

These studies were unethical because the participants to this study did not agree to participate. They violated their rights and put their families and the participant through tough times and heartache. Both of these studies are similar but the Guatemala study recieved treatment. In my opinion, the Tuskegee syphilis study patients were in more need of the treatment instead of prisioners or people that were infected by sleeping with an infected prostitute.