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Syphilis
Ethical Issues Dealing with Infectious Diseases
There can be many ethical issues when dealing with infectious disease. Some examples of those issues could be: singling out races/genders, stigmatizing individual diseases, human rights, autonomy, beneficence, and social and global justices. There are many examples of these possible ethical issues throughout history, a primary one being the Tuskegee Study which will be mentioned later. There is often a stigmatism attached to individuals with certain infectious diseases much like HIV. It appears whether a study is ethical or not can often be overlooked because the researchers are more worried about their results rather than the individuals they are studying.
Ethical Issues Involving the Tuskegee Study
The Tuskegee study had many ethical issues that for some reason were allowed to happen. One of the largest being racial bias. The researchers only chose infected poor black males to perform the study. Also, the participants were told that they were being treated correctly, when in fact they were not receiving proper treatment even though there was medicines that could have helped cure their diseases. Also, the participants were in a financial situation that was very easy for the researchers to manipulate them by stating things like “We will financially compensate you.,” or “We will give you free healthcare.,” when in fact those statements were incorrect.
Consequences of Unethical Studies
Unethical studies can have many consequences involving groups and people that were being studied. A good example is the Tuskegee study. Following the study, African Americans were very reluctant to seek out health care, and some still are to this day. When news of unethical treatments and studies arise, it can cause mistrust in communities and groups of people that have connections to those that had been impacted by the unethical experiences. There are laws in place in the U.S. for unfair treatments, however, internationally there are guidelines but no concrete laws that can be implemented, therefore there are still many unethical studies and treatments globally.
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