The title picture is from Visual China. On April 29, 1992, the black policeman in Los Angeles was found not guilty and caused a riot. This article is from public micro-channel number: Earth knowledge Bureau (ID: diqiuzhishiju) , author: silent child beans, cartography: Sun Green
Experiment is an important means to promote the development of medicine, but it is also the hardest hit area in the dark history of medicine. In the process of being gradually discovered, the truth of some human diseases is accompanied by the dark side of living human samples being used and even abused-that is, “human experiments” closely related to morals, ethics, and human nature.
It ’s not only the Nazis who do dark human experiments
the United States also had it
(picture from @Urban Intellectuals / pinterest) ▼
In the 1930s, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment initiated by the US Department of Public Health was a notorious human experiment. During the experiment, a large number of black people suffering from syphilis were forced to stay away from the normal medical environment and became victims of “medical experiments” that they did not know.
Patients are supposed to be the beneficiaries of medicine, but they have become victims. So who does the development of medicine benefit?
Standing on the edge of morality
Syphilis is a bacterial sexually transmitted disease that is mainly transmitted sexually. It is generally considered to be a disease transmitted from the New World of the Americas to Eurasia. Since the 15th century, it has been accompanied by all humans and has tortured generations of patients. But the pathogen of syphilis, a spirochete, was not isolated by German doctors until 1905. Humans who suffered from syphilis soon began fierce research on syphilis.
(picture from @Wikipedia) ▼
In 1928, the Norwegian conducted an “Unsyphilis Untreated Oslo Study”, which showed the pathological development of hundreds of white male syphilis patients without treatment. This study brings together various symptoms of patients diagnosed with syphilis within a period of time without treatment, which is essentially a retrospective experiment.
At the time, there were many studies on syphilis in the American medical community. One of the conclusions is that the impact of syphilis on people depends on the race of the person. Bigger. Therefore, the United States was inspired by the Norwegian experiment and also intends to conduct experiments to understand what symptoms will develop in black people without syphilis without treatment.
bad hunch
(picture from @CDC) ▼
In 1932, the Department of Sexually Transmitted Diseases of the U.S. Department of Public Health established a research team in Washington, and decided to conduct long-term observations of black American syphilis patients for 6 to 8 months without treatment and treat them after they expire. Soon after, the New York State Health Commissioner made a proposal for the plan: “If you want to study how the condition of black people suffering from syphilis will develop, Macon County will be an ideal location.”
Location of Alabama-Macon County ▼
Macon County is a poor county in central and eastern Alabama. Local syphilis control studies have shown that 36% of African Americans in the county have syphilis, and they are not aware of the disease, so they are used to Doing no treatment experiments is “nothing more suitable”.
It may mean “the people here are more liable”
(Pictures come from @ 美国 国家 资料 馆) ▼
After the location was confirmed, in order to attract the participation of local black patients, the research team tried to close the distance with the local black people and gain their trust.
The experimenters came to Macon County to inform the local black people that they were infected with “scurvy”, and accurately described the various symptoms they had, including skin ulcers, rashes, etc., and said “Special free treatment” will be given to patients in long-term experiments.
taking septicemia as a gimmick ▼
When the black patients heard it, they felt hopeful for treatment. Blacks who had originally resisted the negative treatment of distrust had signs of joining the experiment. At this time, Tuskegee University and the black nurse Miss Reeves, who had been taught by the university, played a role in promoting the participation of the black people.
Reeves communicated with the subjects and used his African identity to narrow the distance with these black tenant farmers, but it was a carefully planned Scam
(Pictures come from @ 美国 国家 资料 馆) ▼
Tskage University allowed black people who were at the bottom of society and unable to pay medical expenses to participate in the “Miss Reeves Rally” during the Great Depression.Check-ups, free transportation, lunch on medical check-up day and some minor illness treatment benefits.
These heart-warming things make people feel confident about Miss Reeves and Tuskegee University. So when the president and dean of the university and the well-known black medical lady Reeves all said they would participate in the project, the black patients were quickly persuaded.
(Pictures from @ 美国 政府 资料) ▼
But Tuskegee University did not intentionally push black people into the fire pit. In their view, this long-term experiment did not have unethical behavior in the early stage: at this time, there is no definitive cure for syphilis, and the team has explained that the patients will be carried out after 6 to 8 months of the experiment. Method of adjuvant therapy, and this may be the best outcome for these blacks-rather than waiting to die, it is better to give it a try.
The experimenters who participated in the experiment actually knew nothing about it and entered the game
(Picture from @USA National Archives and Records Administration) ▼
In summary, the African-American staff who participated in the Tuskegee experiment at the time believed that this medical experimentPoor syphilis patients are a good project.
Gradually evil experiment
Finally, the test team gathered 399 black people with syphilis and 201 healthy black people as the control group.
The daily whereabouts and physical condition of these subjects are monitored and recorded by the researchers. To give them peace of mind, the researchers will also give them medicines that have no therapeutic effect, such as aspirin and mineral supplements, which are said to help the body recover.
A piece of data during the study
displays the number of patients with syphilis and the number of patients with uncontrolled non-syphilis
and the number of deaths in the experiment
(Pictures come from @ 美国 国家 资料 馆) ▼
However, there was an accident during the experiment-the “Rosenwald Foundation” that funded the project withdrew its financial support due to the impact of the Great Depression.
The experiment project had no source of funding and should have ended, but after “full consideration”, the researchers decided to continue the experiment and extend it indefinitely-just treatment is free, after all, it is too expensive.
Is it possible that there is no black people ’s lives and interests in “full consideration”
(Pictures come from @ 美国 国家 资料 馆) ▼
So, what have doctors considered in their comprehensive consideration?
On the one hand, at the time, social Darwinism prevailed, providing new support for racism in the United States. According to the history of black people, American scientists infer that this race is in a disadvantaged position in the struggle for survival, easy to commit crimes, and easy to get sick; some medical experts at that time reached a conclusion based on the social image and practices of black people after the liberation of American slaves, saying that freedom caused black people The deterioration of psychological and moral conditions, and attributed the high incidence of sexually transmitted diseases in black people to black people’s excessive sexual desire and misconduct.
Look at who has the right to speak
(Pictures come from @ 美国 国家 资料 馆) ▼
So white doctors believe that it is impossible to cure sexually transmitted diseases among black people, and no matter how good medical services are, it cannot change the nature of black people.
On the other hand, of course, they considered the scarcity of human experiments and the value of future research results.
Sinful decisions have been made, but these black people are not known. Wait until the 6 to 8 months of study ends, in order not to causeParticipants suspected that the research team briefly adopted slightly effective scarlet ointment and mercury ointment for syphilis patients, and published the first batch of clinical trial data in 1934. Faced with the doubts of patients about “why the efficacy quickly failed”, the research team said that the treatment of “scurvy” needs to be carried out for a long time.
The injection is just a placebo
(placebo refers to tablets, pills, and injections that have no medical treatment, relying on the patient ’s trust in the doctor)
(Pictures come from @ 美国 国家 资料 馆) ▼
But black people are not stupid, so they questioned the sound of (but it did n’t help) . In order to achieve the purpose of life-long tracking of the patient’s course of disease and post-mortem autopsy, the US Department of Health has seriously deployed a plan to rack up their brains, intimidate and persuade black patients and their families to stay and participate. And all kinds of benefits, including promise “Even if people are not cured and die, they will be given a funeral fee” and so on, and said that this is “the last chance to get special free treatment.”
I am happy to receive “treatment”
(picture from @CDC) ▼