Podcasts Government On The Record Blowing the Whistle on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Blowing the Whistle on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study

Published: Oct. 25, 2017, 3:22 p.m.

In 1932 the U.S. Public Health Service enlisted African-American men in Macon County, Alabama in a syphilis study. The men weren’t asked for informed consent -- and were told they would get treatment. They didn’t, even after penicillin was shown to cure syphilis.