The document summarizes the unethical Tuskegee Syphilis Study conducted from 1932 to 1972 by the U.S. Public Health Service to study the natural progression of untreated syphilis in African American men in Alabama. Over 400 men with syphilis were never informed and were denied treatment even after penicillin was found to be an effective treatment. The study was exposed in 1972 and led to major reforms in human subject research ethics and regulations to protect participants, including the 1979 Belmont Report.

1. Life is all about choices …

2. Responsible Research Ethics and The Tuskegee Syphilis Study

4. All Aboard to the 20 th Century!

5. First Test Tube Baby Born 1978 First Human Heart Transplant Year - 1967 First successful Open Heart Surgery - 1952 Penicillin - 1940 sulfa drugs - 1932 First Electrocardiogram 1903 Back to Tuskegee 1923 - 1952 Piaget describes stages of cognitive development

12. Yet no one ever questioned the study.

17. “ Nothing learned will prevent, find, or cure a single case.”

19. The Tuskegee Syphilis Study - became a major factor in the writing of the 1979 Belmont Report which guides human subject research today in the U.S.

20. The 3 Basic Ethical Principles of the Belmont Report Respect for Persons Benefice Justice

25. The 1997 Presidential Apology http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jul/tuskegee/

28. The Tuskegee Study started in 1932 and continued for 40 years, well past the 1946 Nuremberg trials.

29. Why do you think nobody saw a connection between Nuremberg and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study?

31. First Test Tube Baby Born 1978 First Human Heart Transplant Year - 1967 First successful Open Heart Surgery - 1952 Penicillin - 1940 sulfa drugs - 1932 First Electrocardiogram 1903 Back to the Future! 1923 - 1952 Piaget describes stages of cognitive development

32. Life is all about choices … choices have consequences Now it’s your turn - how will YOU choose ?

33. The author wishes to acknowledge the following resources used in creating this presentation on Responsible Research Ethics: James H. Jones, Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, New York: The Free Press, 1993 (expanded ed.). David at Frogstone for the image Femme used in backdrop. The Faces of Tuskegee website at MSU.