The Story

In the Tuskagee syphilis study, researchers observed the evolution of untreated syphilis in black men. The study began in 1932, a time when – as we saw earlier on – eugenics had permeated scientific inquiry. The US Public Health Service, which led the project, was particularly subject to racist ideologies. Indeed, they had been – at different stages – a military organisation (Parascandola, 2001). As Park (2017) argues, the military status of the US Public Health Service meant that the US army’s experiences of medical experiments abroad became a part of the country’s attitude to public health.

Informed consent was not collected from the project participants. The study was , the study lasted from 1932 to 1972, and the participants with syphilis were not treated in the 1940s when penicillin was the treatment of choice and widely available (CDC, 2021). The study’s methodology clearly reflected the pseudoscientific and racist beliefs underpinning eugenics and society more broadly.