Ethical Implications of Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment Compared to Henrietta Lacks

The story of Henrietta Lacks is a prime case of the moral tradeoffs established by authority and how researchers think about in the quest for the benefit of everyone and science, except it additionally alerted a defining moment that marked human history and science studies. It uncovered a sightless view and to a substantial open door for society to voice concerns and request suitable measures to be taken to upon past slip-ups. The same can be continued to the Tuskegee Syphilis, to analyze where moral rules have been formed and instituted to ensure both the patient volunteer and the trustworthiness of science. These rules were created because of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and as well as Henrietta which did inquire about for a long time. Accordingly, to the codes of morals and guidelines, for example, the Nuremberg Code and Belmont Report have been set up to control moral clinical research and prevent what happened in the past.

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study and HeLa cells were two occurrences where patients were dealt with a lot like guinea pigs, yet those 'tests' helped the clinical world. In the two situations, the patients were clueless, and the experimenters profited by those tests. The two cases give off an impression of being racial and both have gotten expressions of remorse and are offering an apology. Both cases were both ethically wrong and shameful actions are taken in place by the Institute and government at the time. These two scenarios are similar in the way that neither patients in the Tuskegee study or even Henrietta herself knew the extent of the study done to them. Consent was completely out of the picture. Neither of both cases knew that they were being engulfed by greedy scientist that were taking things from them. For example, with Henrietta and her cells. The men were also robbed as their dignity and moral values were stripped and thrown at the ground with no sensibility. The African Males were apprehended from their health and it just comes to show the moral sense of these scientists at the time. The use of Government action and deception over a minority was at the place, yet so sightless at that time to where no one said anything about it and no moral sense at place. The Tuskegee study targeted young, African American males that were undereducated. These men at the time had no reason to come to question the acts of these scientists and that was all in part because that minority group had no voice at the time where the power of structure of Jim Crow laws was sat in place and Segregation was a must for a society to advance and modernize. The lack of education was seen in place since most of these men did not even know what syphilis was, even worse they didn’t even know they had it within their bodies. In the similar case of Henrietta. Minority deception and oppression for the gain of another group with higher status and power. Henrietta wasn’t seen as a human being but as a prized possession a certain extent of studies was put into action, not for the wellbeing of her but to further research her cells and she was placed aside basically to die. The lack of her education only strengthens that the African American group was very undereducated like the Tuskegee African American males and how both groups were taken advantage of and the lack of education was a feeding factor for these greedy scientists to take advantage of them. Henrietta just like the Tuskegee study became another case of minority group deception.

Racial injustice played a big role in how these experiments were played out and they were quite a bit different between Henrietta and the Tuskegee study but they both bounce off each other to show the injustice and ethical dilemma involved withing these shameful acts. It is inhumane and wrong to purposely infect human beings with a deadly and contagious disease without consent and further medical treatment. That what we see here in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. These men were treated as lab rats in the case there was no power in the hands of these men at the time and the lack of comprehension was inevitable. When the cure of syphilis was invented these men did not receive the treatment and denied the cure. Immoral values were at play and the Placebo effect was in place for it. These men thought there receiving medication but, this was the plain opposite. The placebo is used, and its effect depicts the connection between the mind and brain in which reality is hard to explain and understand and to this day we don’t understand much of due to its complexity. The placebo effect roots into the patients' expectations of medication and it influences the perception of it. Although not all placebos are effective and beneficial. Since no real medication is being given symptoms may worsen. This is comparable to the Tuskegee study. These men died and had severe health-related conditions after being given the placebo medication. This is called the Nocebo effect. According to Healthline, the opposite reaction of the placebo effect is the nocebo effect and they are believed to be similar to the involvement of expectation and condition. The Placebo and Nocebo effect are key roles in the Tuskegee study but differ from Henrietta. Henrietta, however, knew the extent of the disease she had in her. She knew she was supposed to get treated for her disease as opposed to the Tuskegee men. Although her treatment was ethically wrong and not with patient dignity. Some sort of consent knowledge was present in this case that sets apart Henrietta and the Tuskegee men, but it doesn’t consider that these weren’t enough to not make it an ethical wrong action.

Of all the symbols in the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the Tuskegee Institute has a dramatic double-sided legacy. How there are two sides of one coin can be inferred the same to Tuskegee Institute. On one hand, Tuskegee was the site of the cell production factory where the staff was of black female technicians. These female technicians produced HELA cells that could combat, mutate, and fight the polio disease to a point where they helped cure Polio. It was a huge victory and step not only for the country as it was going through a pandemic but for African Americans and women. These female technicians became part of a founding extraordinary and one of the most celebrated medical advances of the 21st century. Although at the same time it was home to the infamously Tuskegee Syphilis Study. One of the most infamously racist and injustices studies in American history. The suffering of hundreds of black men was a that Tuskegee though was the way to advance medical aid. The victimization of these underrepresented minority groups was one side of the coin as to the other were Tuskegee was the way of medical advancement through black female technicians, very odd.

To conclude, at the end of my research and findings in the book I boggled my mind with a question, and I hope at the end of this paper you ask yourself this same question. To what cost did these institutes go-to for medical advancements? Were these medical cases the right way to advance aid or could it have it been done another way? I self-reflected and I could see the ethical implications between the two and how they're similar and different in their way. This was a turning point. An opportunity for the public and minority groups to have their voice heard and demand appropriate actions and through those actions learn from right to wrong.

Works Cited

1. Skloot, Rebecca, and Sarah Moss. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Picador, 2019
2. Seladi-Schulman, Jill. “What Is the Placebo Effect and Is It Real?” Healthline, 13 Feb. 2020, www.healthline.com/health/placebo-effect. Medically reviewed by Timothy J. Legg, PhD, PsyD on February 13, 2020 — Written by Jill Seladi-Schulman, PhD