Ethical Issues in Medical Research

The Tuskegee Experiment was conducted between the year 1932 and 1972 and intended to study the course of untreated syphilis. It was a federally funded experiment, and none of the African American men with syphilis in Macon County suspected that the medical providers and researchers were withholding the treatment. Instead, they were giving them placebos like mineral supplements and aspirin. The researchers did not accord any effective care even when some men died while others became blind or insane. The researchers and medical providers exploited the African American men because the majority of them were sharecroppers who had not visited doctors before for medical diagnosis. It is depressing that doctors from the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) experimented because they had taken an oath to care for the sick (Katz et al., 2008).
The experiment continued until the mid-1960s when an investigator, Peter Buxton, from the PHS Venereal Disease Department realized it. He expressed concern over the unethical practice of the Tuskegee experiment. He later leaked the story to a reporter friend because PHS officials failed to stop the study because of the dangers posed to the subjects. The reporter later passed the information to a fellow reporter, Jean Heller who broke the story through Associated Press in 1972 (Katz et al., 2008). The story prompted public outrage resulting in the shutting down of the study although twenty-eight men had already died from the disease and 100 other from complications related to syphilis. Moreover, nearly 40 men had infected their partners while 19 children contracted the disease at birth. At the end of the experiment, many African American men had lost faith and trust on public health providers.
Risks to Participants
The participants of the experiments risked their lives from various dimensions. For instance, their life expectancy was reduced yet they suffered from a treatable disease. At 45 years, many African American men became unproductive. Moreover, the individuals were exposed to dangerous medical practices that had not been tested before; they acted as guinea pigs for the researchers and medical providers. The health risks escalated for the participants because they had limited resources and knowledge concerning the experiment.
Current Research Protocols Violated
The research protocols violated included that fact that the researchers did not get the consent of their participants. As a result, the participants were not given accurate information concerning the study, their circumstances, and the dangers associated with their roles in the study. In addition, they were not given all available treatment options so that they could decide on the one that was appropriate to them. Another violation was related to the fact that they were not told about the research, what it entailed, or if they had been diagnosed with the disease. Even with the existence of a cure, they were denied the option of accessing proper treatment (Kim, 2012). Other ethical principles violated include beneficence where the test subjects had to be informed about all the risks or benefits of the treatment. Lastly, the justice principle was also violated because individual justice and societal justice were ignored during the study. In individual justice, the American men were offered riskier treatment compared to the white American men who were given helpful treatment. The societal justice dictates that studies conducted must be done using a random selection of participants to promote fairness of the study without looking at their gender, social, and economic class.
Concerns of the Contemporary Institutional Review Boards
Since the research team had no consent forms from their participants, this would raise alarms for contemporary institutional review boards. Moreover, the lack of a proper research paper outlining the background, mission statement, problem statement, and discussion of the whole experiment is something to be worried about. They would also incorporate research questions that would act as guidance to the researcher on the direction of the whole experiment. The other concern is the fact that no compensation plan is available to the participants (Kim, 2012).

References
Katz, R.V. et al. (2008). The legacy of the Tuskegee syphilis study: Assessing its impact on willingness to participate in biomedical studies. J Health Care Poor Underserved. 19(4): 1168–1180.
Kim, W. O. (2012). Institutional review board (IRB) and ethical issues in clinical research. Korean Journal of Anesthesiology, 62(1), 3-12.