Results

The Tuskegee Syphilis Study
James M. DuBois
From 1932 through 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service enrolled African-American men in a non-therapeutic research study to observe the natural course of syphilis. Subjects were not told they had syphilis, nor were they treated for syphilis or any secondary problems. The study continued even after penicillin became the standard treatment for syphilis in the 1940’s and was not ended until 1972, when a public health official went to the press.

Hepatitis Studies at the Willowbrook State School for Children with Mental Retardation
James M. DuBois
From 1956 through 1971, residents at the Willowbrook State School for Children with Mental Retardation were infected with live hepatitis in order to develop a vaccine. Parents gave permission for their children to participate in this study, often because it guaranteed acceptance into the overcrowded facility.

It's All the Same
James M. DuBois
A psychiatric researcher feels that a research coordinator recruiting patients for drug trials may be giving participants false hope about the experimental treatments being tested.

Research or Services?
Gerald P. Koocher and Patricia C. Keith-Spiegel
Parents are told that if they enroll their babies in a research project, the babies will receive an EEG to look for signs of brain damage. Babies not enrolled will not receive this diagnostic test.

Motivating Research Participation
Jean Campbell
A researcher struggles to recruit sufficient numbers of mental health consumers to participate in an evaluation study of county mental health services before and after a major reorganization of the delivery system.