An Example of Why a Free Press Is Vital to the Lifeblood of a Free Nation
Imagine you go to the doctor. He discovers that you have a deadly disease that will cause you great physical harm if left untreated and, ultimately, an early death. Your brain will begin to degenerate and, eventually, your heart tissue scar.
The cure is easy … a few shots and you’re fine. But instead of telling you what is really wrong, the doctor lies and says you have “bad blood”. He then decides to keep your condition a secret so he can watch you slowly die and study how your real disease progresses. He also secretly arranges to pay for your funeral expenses when you finally succumb. All the while, the cure is sitting a few feet away in a drawer.
That is exactly what the United States Government did to its own citizens between 1932 and 1972. The only reason the experiments ended? The press found out about the crimes being committed in the name of science.
The History of the Tuskegee Experiments in the United States
[mainbodyad]In 1932, the United States Government diagnosed 399 poor black men in Macon County, Alabama with syphilis but never informed them of their condition. Federal scientists told the men they had “bad blood” as they researched and constructed a 40+ year study monitoring, “untreated syphilis in the male Negro.”
Researchers never treated the illness even when a cure was found in 1940 (penicillin) despite the fact that syphilis can lead to mental damage and, ultimately, death, if left untreated. Instead, the poor men were given free meals, medical exams, and the government paid for their funeral expenses after they died. The doctors never intended to cure them, which would have cost next to nothing, and stated they had no further interest in the men “until they died” so they could autopsy the body as part of the study.
When the United States entered World War II, 250 of the 399 black men registered for the draft and were ordered by the military to get cured of the disease so they could serve against Hitler and his allies. Instead, the folks running the Tuskegee Experiment intervened and exempted the test subjects. They didn’t want them cured; they wanted them dead for the sake of the experiment.
By the end of the experiment, 28 of the men had died directly of syphilis, 100 were dead of related complications, 40 of their wives had been infected, and 19 of their children had been born with congenital syphilis.
In addition, “to ensure that the men would show up for a painful and potentially dangerous spinal tap, the government doctors misled them with a letter full of promotional hype: “Last Chance for Special Free Treatment.” The fact that autopsies would eventually be required was also concealed.” according to one website on the issue. As one doctor explained …
“If the colored population becomes aware that accepting free hospital care means a post-mortem, every darky will leave Macon County…” Even the Surgeon General of the United States participated in enticing the men to remain in the experiment, sending them certificates of appreciation after 25 years in the study
How the Monstrous Tuskegee Experiment Finally Ended
The Tuskegee Experiment only ended in 1972 after the media exposed it to the public by a whistle blower in The Washington Star. The government position? “All the men had been “volunteers” and “were always happy to see the doctors,” and an Alabama state health officer who had been involved claimed “somebody is trying to make a mountain out of a molehill.”” The government specifically rejected arguments that the experiments were comparable to those the Nazis had carried out against Jewish citizens despite offering the same defense, “We were just following orders.”
[mainbodyad]Perhaps the most damning, and horrifying, indictment comes from the fact that the Tuskegee Experiments were carried out with the knowledge, consent and help of black institutions such as the Tuskegee Institute, the black university founded by Booker T. Washington.
