Question

Read about the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and watch the newsclip about the Guatemalan Study (THESE ARE TWO DIFFERENT STUDIES).

Tuskegee Info: https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm

Guatemala Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XydKHo8FNl4

In your own words, what were the ethical violations of both studies? What are your thoughts on these studies?

Answer 1

I feel both were ethically violated, as either experiments had the courtesy of informing the subjects, of what is going on. This happened to the extent of many fatalities. Tuskegee experiment was conducted for 40 years, ruining a lifetime of many people with no result. On the other side, guatemala experiment, purposefully infected the subjects with syphilis without their consent and it is saddening that these things happened with the knowledge of the then US President. I feel such fatal studies without the consent of the participants should never be conducted. Also, the terms and conditions, what the subjects will have to undergo has to be clearly mentiones before the study with no hidden information or vagueness. Moreover, the subjects should also be given the choice to exit the study, as per their needs, as they are not slaves.