The rationalization of unethical research: Revisionist accounts of the Tuskegee syphilis study and the New Zealand "unfortunate experiment"

C. Paul and B. Brookes

American Journal of Public Health, 2015, vol. 105, issue 10, e12-e19

Abstract: Two studies, widely condemned in the 1970s and 1980s?the Tuskegee study ofmenwith untreated syphilis and the New Zealand study of women with untreated carcinoma in situ of the cervix?received newdefenses in the 21st century. Wenotedremarkablesimilarities in both the studies and their defenses. Here we evaluate the scientific, political, and moral claims of the defenders. The scientific claims are largely based on incomplete or misinterpreted evidence and exaggeration of the uncertainties of science. The defenders' political arguments mistakenly claim that identity politics clouded the original critiques; in fact such politics opened the eyes of thepublic to exploitation.The moral defenses demonstrate an overreliance on codes of conductandhaveimplications for research ethics today.

Keywords: African American; carcinoma in situ; defense mechanism; ethics; ethnology; female; government; human; human experiment; human rights; male; morality; New Zealand; prejudice; research ethics; syphilis; treatment withdrawal; United States; uterine cervix tumor, African Americans; Alabama; Carcinoma in Situ; Ethics, Research; Federal Government; Female; Human Rights; Humans; Male; Morals; New Zealand; Nontherapeutic Human Experimentation; Prejudice; Rationalization; Syphilis; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms; Withholding Treatment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2015.302720

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2015.302720_4

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2015.302720

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().