Essay - Book Review—public Health Study on Implications and Ethics of Syphilis...

Book Review—Public Health Study on Implications and Ethics of Syphilis

Reverby, Susan. (2003) Tuskegee's' Truths: Rethinking the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Studies on Social Medicine.

One of the most infamous actions (or non-actions) in American medicine was that of the Tuskegee ***** ***** this century. The U.S. Public Health Service, on behalf of the U.S. government, observed the effects of advanced and untreated syphilis on four hundred poor black Alabama men. The experi*****t lasted until 1972.

***** could this have occurred? The reasons are twofold—the perception of syphilis as an illness and the rampant racism prevalent in America at ***** time. One of the ***** culturally and politically significant illnesses ***** human history h***** been th***** ***** syphilis. Syphilis is a sexu*****lly transmitted disease that has been blamed for taking some of the greatest minds that ever lived, including Mozart's, as well ***** many other ordinary individuals. It has been stigmatized because of the methodology ***** its transmission, ***** because of ***** association with sexually licentious *****, such as prostitutes, ***** *****ten been used as a way of stigmatizing the poor and downtrodden and ********** who use ***** ***** promiscuous lifestyle to survive.

The mark of the "pox" ***** once a death sentence, as well as 'said' something about an individual's socioeconomic class and stature—or in a we*****lthier individual, about his or her sexual appetites and insatiability. Because, in its later stages, syphilis physically ********** the suffering person, it created a kind of b*****dge, a scarlet letter of physical suffering and illness on the flesh.

How*****, because of the discovery of penicillin, all ***** t***** ended—or so *****e would have liked *****o have though. Although syphilis lost *****s plague-like status because of the discovery of a cure, its cultural significance did not go away. For ***** wealthy, the existence of penicillin gave men and wo*****, especially men such as soldiers far away from home, greater com*****t and license in seek*****g sexual comforts. For those who could not afford such treatment, however, penicillin was no panacea. Penicillin simply meant that *****s whom could afford treatment took fewer precautions in protecting themselves when involved in sexual relations. Thus, the fear of '***** pox' ***** individuals of higher socioeconomic status ***** lessoned, ***** the sense of the pox stigmatizing the poor and those involved in the sex trade increased.

During the ***** experiments upon Black men seeking treatment, it was hypothesized ***** the antibacterial effects of penicillin might be due to psychological, rather than physical reasons. To determine if this was the case, and to observe the effects ***** the disease in a modern setting, men suffering ***** ail*****t were ***** given the appropriate ***** ***** studied as test subjects. All suffered the horrible effects of the illness, to one degree or another, and were permanently, physically damaged.

The only way that this could ***** *****, auth***** ***** M. Reverby, suggests, is because those who contracted the dise*****e were seen as deserving what they got, ***** getting their true 'just medicine' by not getting