Gregory Freeman: Apology Is A Start, But Is It Enough? P-D 5/20/1997

Headline: APOLOGY IS A START, BUT IS IT ENOUGH?
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Tue., May 20, 1997
Section: NEWS, Page: 1B, Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

SEVERAL YEARS ago, when the government was recommending that most Americans get flu shots, I had a conversation with a black acquaintance.
   I was planning to get a shot. Was he? "No way, " he said.
   Why not? It's probably better than getting the flu over the winter.
   "There's no way they're going to put anything in me, " he said. "I know the Tuskegee thing."

I knew immediately what he meant by the "Tuskegee thing."
   The infamous "Tuskegee experiment" began in 1932 when the U.S. Public Health Service set out to determine the effects of untreated syphilis on the human body by studying its progression among day laborers and sharecroppers in the Tuskegee, Ala., area.
   The "U.S. Public Health Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male" examined 399 poor, uneducated black men, who had been promised free medical care. They were not told that they had syphilis but instead that they had "bad blood." Even after penicillin was discovered as a cure in 1947, the men were never told they had the disease and were not treated for it.
   Many of them suffered blindness, insanity, even death. The disease was passed on, and at least 40 wives were infected. In addition, 19 children contracted the disease at birth, and it resulted in a high incidence of stillborn births and miscarriages. Hundreds of others watched as the disease ravaged their loved ones.
   In the final stages, syphilis produces rubbery tumors that form large, crusty ulcers on the skin. The disease also eats away at bones, the liver, the heart and the brain.
   In 1972, when newspapers - tipped off by a whistle-blower - exposed the horrifying experiment, the government ended the study. The government paid a $10 million settlement in 1974.

So I could understand my colleague's concerns, although I doubted that there was anything sinister behind the flu vaccine. After something so egregious has been done, it's hard to simply trust someone again.
I know that he's not alone. I suspect that countless African-Americans today decline to participate in medical research, donate organs, give blood or get vaccines because of the racist Tuskegee experiment. It should come as no surprise that African-Americans are reluctant to participate in experimental AIDS treatment. It's the reason many blacks don't trust doctors or the government today.

President Bill Clinton is the sixth man to sit in the Oval Office since the news first broke about the Tuskegee experiment. To his credit, the president last week issued an official apology for what took place.
   "The American people are sorry for the loss, for the years of hurt, " Clinton said, in a ceremony at the White House to the five old men who had traveled from Alabama. "You did nothing wrong, but you were grievously wronged. I apologize, and I am sorry that this apology has been so long in coming.
   "To our African-American citizens, I am sorry that your federal government orchestrated a study so clearly racist, " Clinton said. "That can never be allowed to happen again."
   The president's apology obviously comes too late to help those who have died along the way, although those who traveled to the White House to meet with the president were willing to accept his apology. That says a great deal, considering all of the pain and discomfort those men have gone through.

Still, will the president's apology be enough to wipe away the mistrust of government and medicine that many African-Americans have?
I doubt that many of those who don't trust medicine will immediately embrace the medical world. Some may begin to feel a bit more confident. Others, however, may be more like my colleague. I asked him for his thoughts after the president's announcements.
"It's good he apologized, " my friend said. "But how do we know something like that couldn't happen again? Did the president of the United States even know what was going on when the Tuskegee thing was happening?"

Nothing happens overnight. It took 40 years before the American public even found out about the study. A simple "I am sorry" cannot take away all of the hurt and pain felt as a result of a study that the president called "clearly racist."
But it's a start. The president has taken the proper tack by issuing an apology on the part of the federal government. It will take time to heal the wounds caused by this blotch on American history.

Let's hope that this sort of tragic experiment is never again conducted on another human being.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

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