Ethical Issues Of Race In Medical Research Essay

Ethical Issues Of Race In Medical Research - Essay Example Many doctors believed that them to have a wild sexual expression, which was a danger to the white society. They were thought to be inferior to the white people on intellectual bases and were also alleged of being attracted towards white women. Furthermore, most doctors held the belief that immorality and family problems amongst the Negro community had made them more prone to diseases such as syphilis, and treating them was next to impossible. Also high rates of syphilis in the Negro community had led to an increase in crime and insanity, making them a threat to the other communities. These set of ideas, all relating to racial discrimination against the Negro community, played a significant role in letting the health authorities to make the rural syphilitic Negroes, a part of this study. Thus, the origin of this study was also driven by the racial discrimination of the health authorities against the African-American community. The Tuskegee Study was certainly packed with ethical issue s. It was a display of racism and injustice on part of the health authorities, who showed a complete lack of concern for the African-American community. It was a study carried under ghastly circumstances resulting in many patients dying from painful deaths. Initially, being planned for six months, the study was extended up to forty years and showed no signs of stopping, regardless the number of deaths. No protest was carried out, and no significant actions were taken against the immoral and perilous nature of the study.