David Feldshuh

A dramatization of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. The author uses fictional characters to demonstrate just how people can begin doing the right thing and then over time gradually devolve into ethically questionable behavior and then begin making rationalizations about why they were unable to do te moral thing, or why what they were doing was the moral choice. In this text, the idea of sacrificing a few people to potentially save a lot is explored. It is made worse by the fact that the scope of the study was way beyond what was needed, and could have been halted years before it was. While the bulk of the responsibility probably lies with the government refusal to fund health service for poor blacks, science also has to take a good hard look - and eventually developed more ethical controls to hopefully prevent such excesses again.… (more)