Tuskegee Experiment

The Tuskegee “Experiment” : 

The Tuskegee “Experiment” Bad Blood or Bad Medicine?

Preface : 

Preface This is a brief look at the Tuskegee Syphilis Study on Untreated Negro Males. Contrary to many publications and news reports, many people never heard of this study and if they had, they knew very little about it. The point of this presentation is to inspire people to think and research what occurred to the victims and their families. During the research, many public records concerning the Tuskegee Syphilis Study were not readily available. However with the records available, a more clearer picture of the Study emerged. Page 1

Introduction : 

Introduction Dear Bereans,   Bad Blood or Bad Medicine is a project done out of love for lost and confused souls who do not understand the system in place today to deceive and control the minds of the simple and unsuspecting. This study shows the system has been in place for many years to destroy the Black people through sickness and bitterness. As always the Black secret society leadership works with the white secret society leadership to bring about evil all the day long.  And at the end of the day they can use "racism" to stir up violence. The Wicked create chaos to destroy souls.  The real battle is not about skin color, but your soul. There are many snares set up to destroy our souls.  The Word of God tells us in Romans 2:6-12: Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; We can tell who are the Lord's on how we love one another for all are created in the image of God. The most important commandments are to Love the Lord God with all our hearts and our neighbor as ourselves. It is just that easy! I pray that this work will help you see the conspiracy for your soul and that you will share it with others who cannot see where all this is going.  Blessings, Kel Page 2

Scripture : 

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Jeremiah 17:9-10 Page 3 Scripture

History: Syphilis: Only a Negro Problem? : 

“All Negros has syphilis.” (AW Dumas -1926) 1 “Syphilis in the United States is primarily a Negro problem.” (TM Smith 1944) 2 During the 1920s, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) were extremely high in the United States, especially in southern rural areas.3 Health problems in the Negro community was ignored.4 The United States Public Health Service (PHS) moved to bring this epidemic under control. Initially, the leading clinicians in the Tuskegee Study wanted to demonstrated that the PHS could treat large segments of the population for syphilis at once. They were successful, however when funding failed they change their agenda from treatment to observation.5 Page 4 History: Syphilis: Only a Negro Problem?

History: What is Syphilis? : 

“Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease (STD) caused by the bacterium Treponema palladium. It has often been called the great imitator because so many of the signs and symptoms are indistinguishable from those of other diseases.” 6 There are three stages of syphilis: Primary - can occur between 10 days - 3 months. First sign is a “single sore called a chancre”. The sore usually painless and can heal without treatment. Sometimes, this stage causes multiple sores.7 Secondary - After the chancre heals, a rash appears. Usually “reddish brown in color”. Symptoms may also include “muscle aches, fever, swollen glands, sore throat, weight loss, headaches and/or a feeling of general fatigue.” 8 Latent - This stage cause “deterioration to the muscles, organs, and brain.” Which leads to “dementia, blindness and paralysis. Advanced syphilis may cause irreversible damage to the body.” 9 Page 5 History: What is Syphilis?

History: The Beginning : 

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study (Experiment) was conducted in Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama on untreated Negro Males from 1929-1972 (1932-1972). 1929 During the 20’s, the U.S. Public Health (PHS) were reviewing the high level of syphilis in the southern rural areas. The Study was funded by the Rosenwald Fund, Rockefeller Foundation, and other sources.10 1929 The original program was first proposed by Dr. Taliaferro Clark, venereologist and Assistant Surgeon General (PHS). 11 1930 Dr. Clark, solicited the help of the Tuskegee Institute. 1930 Dr. Oliver Wenger (PHS Director, Hot Springs, AR) met with Tuskegee’s President Robert Moton concerning having the study headquartered at John Andrews Hospital. 12 1930 After the Rosenwald Fund withdrew funding, treatment for the patients were stopped. Plans for the study of untreated syphilis in Negro males begun. 13 1932 Coordination between PHS doctors and Dr. Dibble (head director of John Andrews Hospital) setting up the Study at John Andrews Hospital. Also, PHS hires Nurse Rivers, per Dr. Dibble recommendation, as scientific assistant. 14 1932 – “Dr. Kario Von Pereira-Bailey (PHS) was the on-site director. He conducts the initial examinations and medical procedures.” 15 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study was to last only 6-8 months then follow-up with treatment for the patients. 16 The doctors decided to lie to the participants to keep them in the program. “Dr. Clark agreed with the deceptive practices suggested by other study members. He retired the year after the study began.” 17 In other words, the patients will be told they were receiving treatment in order to keep them in the program until they all died. Page 6 History: The Beginning

History: The Beginning II : 

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study (Experiment) was conducted in Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama on untreated Negro Males from 1929-1972 (1932-1972). Dr. Oliver C. Wenger “played a critical role in developing early study protocols. Wenger continued to advise and assist the Tuskegee Study when it turned into a long term, no-treatment observational study. He misled the subjects to ensure their cooperation.” 18 When Dr. Raymond A. Vonderlehr became the on-site director, he developed the policies that ensured the longevity of the study. 19 Like Dr. Wenger, Dr. Vondelehr agreed with the deceptive practice of lying to the patients. Dr. Wenger, in a letter, “congratulated Vonderlehr for his "flair for framing letters to Negros.” 20 In latter years, Dr. John Heller became the on-site director of the PHS Study. It was during his tenure penicillin was discovered to cured syphilis. Again, treatment was withheld from the patients. 21 Nurse Rivers was the only medical professional who stay with the Study for the whole forty years. Page 7 History: The Beginning II

History: “Special Treatments?” : 

There was at least 625 patients, 411 syphilitic, 200 controls, and 14 syphilitic were added during 1938-'39 years. Totaling 425 syphilitic 200 controls. When a total of 18 patients in the control group became infected with syphilis, they were moved to the syphilitic group. Changing the totals to 443 syphilitic ,182 controls. The Study were of Negro males 25 or older. 22 The syphilitic men were diagnosed with untreated late stage - latent syphilis, supposedly noninfectious. 23 Those who were chosen to participate in the study received free medical exams, free meals, and burial stipends. The burial “insurance” were used only as means to secure permission from the victims’ families for autopsies. Those participating were also known as “Miss Rivers’ Lodge.” 24 Initially, a few received some type of treatment however not enough to effect the outcome of the study. The majority of patients had not received any treatment at all. 25 Treatments consisted of aspirin and mineral spirits. 26 The patients’ reported receiving shots from the doctors. The patients’ endured painful spinal taps and were told they were “special treatment” for their “bad blood”. For those “patients” that were alive in 1958, they received a 25th certificate and $25 dollars. Page 8 History: “Special Treatments?”

Murder in the Name of Science : 

Murder in the Name of Science The patients in the study were never considered to be human, just subjects (animals) in a lab experiment. This is demonstrated by some of the doctors own words: When penicillin was used treat patients for syphilis across the country, the officials in the PHS justified not giving the victims treatment because they were a "control against which to project not only the results obtained with the rapid schedules of therapy for syphilis but also the costs involved in finding and placing under treatment the infected individuals.“ 28 “ In 1976, historian James Jones (1981) interviewed John Heller, director of the Venereal Diseases unit of the PHS from 1943 to 1948. Among Heller's remarks were the following: "The men's status did not warrant ethical debate. They were subjects, not patients; clinical material, not sick people" (p. 179).” 29 . “As I see it,” one of the doctors involved explained, “we have no further interest in these patients until they die.” 30 (Dr. Wenger) "...Such individuals seemed to offer an unusual opportunity to study the untreated syphilitic patients from the beginning of the disease to the death of the infected person. An opportunity was also offered to compare the syphilitic process uninfluenced by modern treatment, with the results attained when treatment had been given. 31 (Dr. Vondelehr) The saddest part of this whole ordeal for the victims was Nurse Rivers. They and their families trust her as a friend. The irony is Nurse Rivers did not feel she betrayed the men’s trust but rather following doctor’s orders. 32 “I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and judgment and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.” I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked nor give advise which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. …Into whatever house where I come, I will enter only for the benefit of the sick, keeping myself far from all intentional mischief and corruption, and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves. All that come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or outside of my practice or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spoken abroad, I will keep secret and not divulge. If I keep this oath unviolated may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times, but should I trespass this oath, may the reverse be my lot” Hippocratic Oath** 27 **I do not advocate this oath at all. This is present solely for illustration of a doctor’s oath to do no harm.** Page 9

Murder in the Name of Science II : 

The patients never knew they were subjects in an experiment. They assumed that they were receiving treatments for “bad blood” throughout the years.33 They found out they were guinea pigs only after the story in the New York Times (1972) by Jean Heller was pick-up by local newspapers across the country. For years the doctors and nurses were writing articles in medical journals on the effects of syphilis in these men bodies. When the story broke, the open secret was not just in the medical community anymore, the world knew. Immediately the racist, injustice, and unethical actions by the local, state, and national health departments were beyond belief. However, no one dared called the doctors and nurses murderers. No efforts were made to bring those involved to justice. In fact the opposite occurred; evidence was destroyed to protect those involved. No one apologized to the victims for the years of suffering they endure for science. In order to receive some type of compensation, they had to sue.35 It was not until 1997 did the remaining victims who were alive received an apology from President Clinton. 36 Although, President Clinton did an honorable deed by apologizing to the living participates, it did not take away the deaths of young and old that died needlessly. In this world, justice is a word often heard, often demanded, and seldom delivered. We can only get a glimpse of what the participants and their families felt. 37 As one son of a participant, Mr. Albert Julkes Jr., said, “You don’t treat a dog like that.” 38 “I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to my ability and judgment and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous.” I will give no deadly medicine to anyone if asked nor give advise which may cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion. …Into whatever house where I come, I will enter only for the benefit of the sick, keeping myself far from all intentional mischief and corruption, and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves. All that come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or outside of my practice or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spoken abroad, I will keep secret and not divulge. If I keep this oath unviolated may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times, but should I trespass this oath, may the reverse be my lot' Hippocratic Oath Quotes** 39 **I do not advocate this oath at all. This is present solely for illustration of a doctor’s oath to do no harm.** Justice? Page 10 Murder in the Name of Science II

Food for Thought : 

Food for Thought This is the lie the serpent told Eve in the Garden of Eden and this is the same lie that men use to exalt themselves as gods. After reading government reports, articles, and books’ excerpt on this subject, I could not help but notice the medical professionals involved in this Study exalted themselves as gods. However, we know they were not gods, but men and by their actions they were lower than the status they held. They departed from their oath of saving lives to taking lives. They convinced themselves they were doing a good service for mankind. However, questions still lingers as to what was the true total of participants involved? If the wives, girlfriends, and children became infected by men who were supposedly noninfectious, did any of the doctors, nurses, or support staff became infected? And if those medical professionals did become infected, did they use treatments to cure themselves? The effects of syphilis in the body were well documented long before the Tuskegee Study. There was no need for this experiment to occur; to deliberately withhold treatment from those suffering was evil. When we think of human experimentation, we think of Germany during the reign of the Nazis. However, it’s sad to note that we were no better than those in Nazi Germany. This Study would have continued until the last participants died. It took a news article to put this Study to an end, it took a lawsuit for the victims to be compensated (p. 46), and it took 65 years for an apology. President Clinton’s apology to the victims stated the Study was “racist” and he was correct. The racism display was equally shared by both white and black professionals against a group of rural farmers, laborers, and sharecroppers. What was the fault of these men and their families? They were poor, black, and trusting. We must make it a point to never forget the victims and what they endured. Research, Think, and Consider. From a great grand-daughter of sharecroppers Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Genesis 3:1-5 Page 11

Notes : 

Notes White, Robert M. "Misrepresentations of the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis.." Journal of the National Medical Association 97(4) 2005 564–581. 25 Mar 2009 PubMed Central. [PMCID: PMC2568733.] 568. Ibid. Fourtner, A.W., Fourtner C.R., Herreid C.F. "Bad Blood: A Case Study of the Tuskegee Syphilis Project ." <http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/projects/cases/blood.htm>. Accessed 26 Mar 2009. Rivers, supra note 1 at 572. "Tuskegee Syphilis Study." AllExpert. <http://en.allexperts.com/e/t/tu/tuskegee_syphilis_study.htm>. Internet; accessed 27 Mar 2009. "Syphilis - CDC Fact Sheet." STD Facts - What is Syphilis?. 04 Jan 2008. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. <http://www.cdc.gov/std/syphilis/STDFact-Syphilis.htm>. Accessed 27 Mar 2009. Ellis-Christensen, Tricia. "What is Syphilis?." What is Syphilis 2009. Wise Geek. <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-syphilis.htm> Accessed 2 Apr 2009 . Ibid. Ibid. Shafer, J. K. et.al. "Untreated Syphilis in the Male Negro -A Prospective Study of the Effect on Life Expectancy." Public Health Reports 7, no. 69 (1954): 684–690. PubMed Central. [PMCID: PMC2024307]. "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male." Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male. 30 Mar 2009. Wikipedia. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Study_of_Untreated_Syphilis_in_the_Negro_Male>. Accessed 27 Mar 2009. "History of Medicine Finding Aids." Documents on the origin and development of the Tuskegee syphilis study 1921-1973. 10 December 2008. U.S. National Library of Medicine. Accessed 30 Mar 2009 . <http://oculus.nlm.nih.gov/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-idx?c=nlmfindaid;id=navbarbrowselink;cginame=findaid-idx;cc=nlmfindaid;view=reslist;subview=standard;didno=tuskegee264;focusrgn=C02;byte=5540297>. Rivers, Eunice. "Twenty years of follow-up experience in a long-range medical study." Public Health Reports 68(4)1953 391–395. Accessed 28 Mar 2009. PubMed Central [PMCID: PMC2024012] “History of Medicine Finding Aids.”, supra note 12. Wikipedia, supra note 10. Ibid. AllExpert, supra note 5. Wikipedia, supra note 10. AllExpert, supra note 4. Wikipedia, supra note 10. Ibid. p. 4 | p. 5 | p. 6 | p. 7 Page 12

Notes : 

Notes Shafer et. al., supra note 9, p. 687. Shafer et. al., supra note 9, p. 688. Rivers, supra note 13, p. 393. " Tuskegee Syphilis Study Administrative Records, compiled 1929 - 1972." Ad Hoc committee meeting to examine data from the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and offer advice on continuance of this Study ARC Identifier 281641, (1969): U.S. National Archives& Records Administration. [NARA's Southeast Region (Atlanta), Morrow, GA.] Fourtner, supra note 3. "Hippocratic Oath." Hippocratic Oath. 2009. Freedictionary.com. 5 Apr 2009 <http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Hipocratic+oath>. Fourtner, supra note 3. "Research Ethics: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study." Tuskegee University. <http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/Story.asp?s=1207598>. 26 Mar 2009 "The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment." Tuskegee University. <http://www.tuskegee.edu/Global/Story.asp?s=1207586>. 27 Mar 2009 "Tuskegee Syphilis Study." Tuskegee Syphilis Study. <http://www.brown.edu/Courses/Bio_160/Projects2000/Ethics/TUSKEGEESYPHILISSTUDY.html>. 6 Apr 2009 Fourtner, supra note 3.; “The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment”, supra note 29. Wikipedia, supra note 10. Ibid. Ibid. Clinton, William J.. "Apology For Study Done in Tuskegee." http://clinton4.nara.gov/textonly/New/Remarks/Fri/19970516-898.html 6 April 2009. Yoon, Carol. "Families Emerge as Silent Victims Of Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment." New York Times. <http://http://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/12/us/families-emerge-as-silent-victims-of-tuskegee-syphilis-experiment.html>. 27 Mar 2009. Ibid. “Hippocratic Oath.”, supra note 27. Photos Credit: Photos are courtesy of Wiki Commons and NARA's Southeast Region (Atlanta), Morrow, GA p. 8 | p. 9 | p. 10 Page 13

More Information at The Berean Chronicles : 

The End Page 14 More Information at The Berean Chronicles

True Total? : 

Courtesy of the National Archives [NARA's Southeast Region (Atlanta), Morrow, GA.] What are the true totals of participants involved? True Total?

Shots : 

Courtesy of the National Archives. Arc Identifier: 650715 [NARA's Southeast Region (Atlanta), Morrow, GA] Shots

Bad Blood : 

Special Treatments? A spinal tap is a diagnostic procedure. Bad Blood

25th Year Certificate : 

Courtesy of the National Archives. ARC Identifier 649413 [NARA's Southeast Region (Atlanta), Morrow, GA.] 25th Year Certificate