title: Tuskegee redux: evolution of legal mandates for human experimentation.
abstract: Human health experiments systematically expose people to conditions beyond the boundaries of medical evidence. Such experiments have included legal-medical collaboration, exemplified in the U.S. by the Public Health Service (PHS) Syphilis Study (Tuskegee). That medical experiment was legal, conforming to segregationist protocols and specific legislative authorization which excluded a selected group of African Americans from any medical protection from syphilis. Subsequent corrective action outlawed unethical medical experiments but did not address other forms of collaboration, including PHS submission to laws which may have placed African American women at increased risk from AIDS and breast cancer. Today, anti-lobbying law makes it a felony for PHS workers to openly challenge legally anointed suspension of medical evidence. African Americans and other vulnerable populations may thereby face excess risks-not only from cancer, but also from motor vehicle crashes, firearm assault, end stage renal disease, and other problems-with PHS workers as silent partners.
authors.affiliation: Meharry Medical College, Department of Family and Community Medicine, 1005 Dr. David B. Todd Jr. Blvd.,Nashville, TN 37208, USA. rlevine@mmc.edu
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.forename: Jamila C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.forename: Barbara A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Kilbourne
authors.forename: Paul D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Juarez
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000407:Alabama; D016358:Contact Tracing; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality; D006805:Human Experimentation / Q000941:ethics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D008327:Mammography / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006278:Medicare; D008875:Middle Aged; D013587:Syphilis / Q000208:ethnology; D014481:United States; D014492:United States Public Health Service / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult