---

    In 1932, the U.S. Public Health Service began a study of syphilis in Macon County, Ala.

    It was proved in 1947 that syphilis could effectively be cured by penicillin. But the U.S. Public Health Service withheld this cure from the 399 men participating in their study. After all, if the men were cured, who would the health department study?
    The participants were encouraged to continue to participate in the study for a number of years, and were offered free meals, free physical examinations and even burial insurance as rewards for their cooperation.
    This study went on for 40 years. During this time, 28 of the men died of syphilis, 100 men died of complications related to syphilis, and at least 40 of their wives and 19 of their children became infected with syphilis.
    In 1972, a series of newspaper investigations brought this scandal to the public’s attention. As would be hoped, the public was outraged.
    In addition to being inexcusably racist, this study conducted by the U.S. Public Health Service was also heinously utilitarian. People are individual persons, and as such they have the right to be treated with respect. No government ever has the right to exploit any of its citizens for research, as if people were mere specimens to be studied. By withholding a cure from these men, the health department was guilty of manslaughter in the case of every single man who died during the study.
    This barbaric study went on before, during and after the crimes of World War II. I find it highly suspicious that I’ve heard about the crimes committed by the countries who opposed the United States in the war many times over, while I had never heard of this syphilis study until this year while taking a course in bioethics.
    No doubt, the crimes committed by the Nazis were far more widespread and more horrible than the crime of this syphilis study. I would not argue otherwise.
    But still, I wonder what else I’m not being told about.