Examining Tuskegee
Subtitle: the infamous syphilis study and its legacy
By: Susan M. Reverby.
Series: John Hope Franklin series in African American history and culture
Publisher: University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Chapel Hill
Language: eng
Number of pages: 384
ISBN-13: 9780807833100
Subjects: Tuskegee Institute; United States. -- Public Health Service; Tuskegee Syphilis Study; Human experimentation in medicine -- Alabama -- Macon County -- History; Syphilis -- Research -- Alabama -- Macon County -- History; Syphilis -- history; African Americans -- history; History, 20th Century; Human Experimentation -- history; Informed Consent -- history; United States Government Agencies -- history; Universities -- history
Description: The forty year "Tuskegee" Syphilis Study has become the American metaphor for medical racism, government malfeasance, and physician arrogance. The subject of histories, films, rumors, and political slogans, it received an official federal apology from President Bill Clinton in a White House ceremony. The author offers an analysis of the notorious study of untreated syphilis, which took place in and around Tuskegee, Alabama, from the 1930s through the 1970s. The study involved hundreds of African American men, most of whom were told by doctors from the U.S. Public Health Service that they were being treated, not just watched, for their late stage syphilis. She examines the study and its aftermath from multiple perspectives to explain what happened and why the study has such power in our collective memory. She follows the study's repercussions in facts and fictions. She highlights the many uncertainties that dogged the study during its four decades and explores the newly available medical records. She uncovers the different ways it was understood by the men, their families, and health care professionals, ultimately revising conventional wisdom on the study. This work illuminates the events and aftermath of the study and sheds light on the complex knot of trust, betrayal, and belief that keeps this study alive in our cultural and political lives.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Historical contingencies : Tuskegee Institute, the Public Health Service, and syphilis; title: Planned, plotted, and official : the study begins; title: Almost undone : the study continues; title: What makes it stop?; title: Testimony : the public story in the 1970s; title: What happened to the men and their families?; title: Why and wherefore : the Public Health Service doctors; title: Triage and "powerful sympathizing" : Eugene H. Dibble, Jr; title: The best care : Eunice Verdell Rivers Laurie; title: Bioethics, history, and the study as gospel; title: The court of imagination; title: The political spectacle of blame and apology; title: Epilogue : the difficulties of treating racism with "Tuskegee".