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A Weekly Column By Walter B. Hoye II

Conflict Of

Interest

In the abortion debate, is there a "Conflict of Interest"within the Black community and among her leaders?

Subscribe Unsubscribe Forward Archives Issue No.: 2012.177

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The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

Poor, Rural Black American Men In The South Thought They Were

Receiving "Free Health Care" From The United States Government

"The United States government did something that was wrongdeeply, profoundly, morally wrong. It was an outrage to our

commitment to integrity and equality for all our citizens clearly racist!" President William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton's apology

for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to the eight remaining survivors, May 16th, 1997 1

For forty (40) years between 1932 and 1972, the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS)

conducted an experiment on 399 black men in the late stages of syphilis. 2
http://www.sharethis.com/share?url=http://www.issues4life.org/blast/2012177.html&title=Conflict+Of+Interest&summary=Is+there+a+conflict+of+interest+within+the+Black+community+and+among+her+leaders?+Could+her+leaders+be+complicit+in+the+carnage+of+their+own+people?+Walter+Hoye%27s+weekly+column+examines+the+abortion+debate+from+an+Black-American%27s+perspective+with+a+Judeo+Christian+Worldview.&img=http://www.issues4life.org/images/20090525walterhoye.jpg&publisher=cd4a03ed-661d-424c-8305-634e10fbd2d5http://www.sharethis.com/share?url=http://www.issues4life.org/blast/2012177.html&title=Conflict+Of+Interest&summary=Is+there+a+conflict+of+interest+within+the+Black+community+and+among+her+leaders?+Could+her+leaders+be+complicit+in+the+carnage+of+their+own+people?+Walter+Hoye%27s+weekly+column+examines+the+abortion+debate+from+an+Black-American%27s+perspective+with+a+Judeo+Christian+Worldview.&img=http://www.issues4life.org/images/20090525walterhoye.jpg&publisher=cd4a03ed-661d-424c-8305-634e10fbd2d5http://www.issues4life.org/newsletters.htmlmailto:?subject=You%20Gotta%20Read%20This...&body=Greetings%20%5BYour%20Friend%27s%20Name%20Here%5D:%0A%0aI%20recommend%20you%20check%20out%20this%20link:%0A%0a-%20%20http://www.issues4life.org/blast/2012177.html%0A%0aYou%20gotta%20read%20this%20article%20from%20Walter%20Hoye%27s%20weekly%20column.mailto:[email protected]?subject=Unsubscribe&body=Newsletter%20Manager:%0A%0aPlease%20remove%20my%20email%20address%20from%20your%20list.%0A%0AThank%20you.http://www.issues4life.org/foundationnewsletter.htmlhttp://www.issues4life.org/blast/2012177.html


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By 1910 my grandparents, in the South are two (2) and four (4) years old.

Executive Summary

"Arguably The Most Infamous Bio-Medical Research Study In U.S. History" 3

"The men's status did not warrant ethical debate. They were subjects, not patients; clinical material, not sick people." Dr. John

R. Heller, M.D., Director of the Public Health Service's Division of Venereal Diseases 4

Between 1932 and 1972 in Tuskegee, Alabama

the United States Public Health Service

(PHS), which by the fall of 1979 would become

the United States Department of Health and

Human Services (HHS) 5,6 wholly dedicated to

"improving the health, safety, and well-being of

America," 7 studied the natural progression of

untreated syphilis in Black American men

who thought they were receiving free health care from their government to the

bitter end.

8

United States Public Health Service investigators recruited a total ofsix hundred (600) impoverished, Black American sharecroppers from Macon

County, Alabama. 9 Three hundred and ninety-nine (399) had previously contracted

syphilis before the study began. Two hundred and one (201) never had the

disease. 10 As reasonable compensation for participating in the study, the Black

American men were offered a free health care

planthat included free meals and free burial

insurance from the then trusted United States

government. 11 The test subjects were never

told they had syphilis and they were never

treated for it. 12 According to the Centers for

Disease Control (CDC), the men were told they

were being treated for "bad blood," a local term

used to describe several illnesses, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue. 13 While

the Tuskegee study failed all ethical standards (including the 1947 Nuremberg

Code14) protecting the legal rights of research subjects and prohibiting human

experimentation, it was especially villainous, vile and vicious because the study's

researchers knowingly failed to treat patients after penicillin was validated as an

effective cure for syphilis in the 1940s. 15 IN SUMMARY: Twenty-eight (28) men

died of syphilis, one-hundred (100) men died from related complications, at least

forty (40) wives were infected and nineteen (19) children contracted congenital

syphilis at birth. 16

By 1932 my parents, born in the South, are two (2) and three (3) years old.

Part One: The Background

Working "ForThe Glory Of Science"

"The Longest Non-Therapeutic Experiment On Humans In Medical History" 17


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"The Tuskegee Study had nothing to do with treatment. No new drugs were tested; neither was any effort made to establish the

efficacy of old forms of treatment. It was a nontherapeutic experiment, aimed at compiling data on the effects of the spontaneous

evolution of syphilis on Black males." James Howard Jones, Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment 18

The Oslo study of Untreated Syphilis, began

in 1909 and was published in 1928. 19 This

epidemiological investigation of the natural

course of the syphilitic infection based upon a re-

study of the "Boeck-Bruusgaard Material"

reported on the natural history of untreated

syphilis in White males. 20 By 1932 the overtly

racist assumptions then prevalent in American

medicine, inclined physicians to believe that

syphilis would react differently in Black American men. 21 Dr. Taliaferro Clark,

who is credited with the Tuskegee study's origin, initially wanted to study untreated

syphilis in a group of Black American men for

six (6) to eight (8) months and then follow up

with a treatment phase. 22 However, Dr. Clark

didn't like how expensive the treatment phase ofthe study was, calling the "spinal taps" given to

the patients "treatment" and agreed with the

deceptive methods recommended by his deputy,

Dr. Raymond H. Vonderlehr, such as not

disclosing the seriousness ofuntreated syphilis

and misrepresenting daily doses of aspirin and

iron supplements as useful medication to the

volunteers of the study. 23,24 To better

understand Dr. Clark's attitude toward the Black

American's in the study, when referring to thevolunteers he said: "These Negroes are very ignorant and easily influenced by

things that would be of minor significance in a more intelligent group." 25Dr. Clark

retired after the first year and was replaced by

Dr. Vonderlehrwho went on to gain the consent

of the volunteers to endure "spinal taps" by

calling them "special free treatment." 26,27 Dr.

Vonderlehrretired in 1943 and was replaced by

Dr. John R. Heller as Director of the United

States Public Health Service's Division of

Venereal Diseases. 28 In 1972 when the public

learned the truth about the study, Dr. Heller

refused to acknowledge the inherent inhumanity

of the study, its similarities to Nazi human experimentation and defended the study's

unethical practices saying: "There was nothing in the experiment that was unethical

or unscientific." 29 "For the most part, doctors and civil servants simply did their jobs.

Some merely followed orders, others worked forthe glory of science." 30


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By the end of 1956 I am four (4) months old in Detroit, Michigan.

Part Two: On The Hill

A Congressional Hearing Was In Order

The Democratic Party Called for A Congressional Hearing To Investigate

"I didn't want to believe it. This was the Public Health Service. We didn't do things like that." Peter Buxtun, the whistleblower

responsible for ending the Tuskegee syphilis experiment. 31

In December of 1965 Peter Buxtun, a social

worker and epidemiologist in San Francisco, was

hired by the Public Health Service to interview

patients with sexually transmitted diseases. 32 In

the course of his work, Buxtun learned of the

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. In November

1966 he filed an official protest and the United

States Center for Disease Control (CDC)

responded by asserting that the study must

continue until all of the patients had died,allowing the researchers the opportunity to

autopsy all

the

patients. 33 This conclusion was also backed by

the National Medical Association and the

American Medical Association. 34 In 1968

Buxtun, filed another protest and again, his

concerns were ruled irrelevant. 35 By 1972 Peter

Buxtun leaked information on the Tuskegee

Experiment to Associated Press reporter Jean

Heller (no relation to Dr. John R. Heller). Jean

Heller's story, in the Washington Evening Star

exposing the ruthlessly

racist Tuskegee Syphilis

Experiment was published on

Tuesday, July 25th, 1972. 36 The next day, the story became

front-page news in the New York Times. 37 Senator Edward

Kennedy from Massachusetts, a member of the Democratic

Party, called for a Congressional hearing where Peter Buxtun

testified. 38 Shortly thereafter (Thursday, November 16th, 1972)

the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was terminated. 39Thank God! Understandably,

the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment created a deep and abiding distrust of

governmental health care programs among Black Americans that is still in effect

today.

By 1972 I am a sixteen (16) year old, high schooler in California.


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In 1972 Democrat Carl Bert Albert was Speaker of the House.

Part Three: In The White House

A Presidential Apology Was In Order

The Democratic Party Reached Out To Restore The Trust Of Black

American's

"What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the

eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States government did was shameful, and I am sorry To

our African American citizens, I am sorry that your federal government orchestrated a study so clearly racist." PresidentWilliam Jefferson "Bill" Clinton's apology for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment to the eight remaining survivors, May 16th,

1997 40

The United States Public Health Service's

Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was reminiscent

of Nazi experiments in Nuremberg. For twenty-

five (25) years Black Americans lived with the

explanation that the United States Public

Health Service's researchers "merely followed

orders" or sacrificially "worked forthe glory of

science." I do not have the words to express

how much it meant to Black Americans to hear

President Clinton, on Friday, May 16th, 1997

apologize to the surviving Tuskegee patients on behalf of the nation.

By 1997 I am a licensed and ordained Baptist preacher in the Bay Area.

"To the survivors, to the wives and

family members, the children and thegrandchildren, I say what you know: No

power on Earth can give you back the

lives lost, the pain suffered, the years of

internal torment and anguish. What was

done cannot be undone. But we can

end the silence. We can stop turning

our heads away. We can look at you in

the eye and finally say, on behalf of the

American people: what the United

States government did was shameful. And I am sorry. The Americanpeople are sorry for the loss, for the years of hurt. You did nothing

wrong, but you were grievously wronged. I apologize and I am sorry

that this apology has been so long in coming." 41

Today I work full time in the Pro-Life movement to reach Black America.


6/8

In 1973, just sixty-seven (67) days after Merlin K. DuVal,

Assistant Secretary to the United States Department of

Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), wrote to Dorothy

P. Rice, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control

(CDC), to terminate the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment

in 1972, the United States Supreme Court decided both Roe and Doe,

establishing a constitutional right to abortion on demand. 42

In 1972 Richard Milhous Nixon was President of the United States of America.

Conclusion

A New OrderIs In Order

"Sincere," "Sound" and "Good-Faith" Investments Are Needed

"I think he [Mitt Romney] has serious ideas. I just think those ideas would scare a lot of the American public. And I think that when

the public hears them and hears that he is serious, then we get down to we're not talking about Obamacare, we're talking about

your health care, we're talking about your Social Security, we're talking about your Medicare. When it starts coming into my

house that's why I said when I spoke at the Martin Luther King Memorial, it's not about Obama, it's about your

momma." Al Sharpton, on MSNBC's Morning Joe, Live Thursday, December 29th, 2011 43

I am often asked to explain "how can" and "why

do" Black American's embrace Obamacare.

Frankly While Black Americans have already

experienced the manifold blessings of "free

health care" under both White Democratic and

White Republican administrations, the

Democratic Party has publicly acknowledged

America's racist tendencies and boldly invested

in Black America by way ofBlack Americans.This is not to say that the Democratic Party's investments in my community have

been "sincere," "sound" or even "good-faith" investments. Not at all. However,

this is to deliberately say, that "sincere,""sound" and "good-faith" investments

are exactly how New Order Investments by the Republican Party can and will

effectively reach voters in communities of color. So what does this look like?

"Sincere,""sound" and "good-faith" investments have always had the power to

make amends. "Sincere" investments will acknowledge and accept responsibility

for the harm caused by past failures to love communities of color and model

genuinely new behavior by spending the time, talent and treasure required to renew

and reconcile the relationship. "Sound" investments will overcome the damage to

communities of color caused by "politically expedient" spending on entitlement

programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid by getting resources out

of Washington, D.C. and back into the private sector where they can be used

productively to create businesses and jobs. "Good-faith" investments will make

room at the decision table for members from communities of color and meet the

physical needs of women, children and broken families without violating their

religious convictions.


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26. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, "Study Clinicians" (http://bit.ly/MCVAHc).

27. Dave Wong and Stephanie Lord, "People of the Tuskegee Experiment," Dr. Raymond H. Vonderlehr(http://bit.ly/LNGdiN).

28. Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, "Study Clinicians," Dr. John R. Hellerled the national division (http://bit.ly/MCVAHc).

29. Aftermath of the Study, Dr. John R. Hellerquote: (http://bit.ly/NtsIDV). See also New York Times, July 26, 1972, p1.

30. Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, "Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs, and the Press" Dr. John Heller's quote is in the

chapter entitled: "The History of 'Black Paranoia'" on page 67 (http://bit.ly/L0WfkY).

31. Peter Buxtun, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/MIKtKF).

32. Ibid.

33. Ibid.

34. Study Termination, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/MpOuFk).

35. Peter Buxtun, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/MIKtKF).

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid. See also "Effects of untreated syphilis in the negro male, 1932 to 1972: A closure comes to the Tuskegee study,

2004," by Shamim M. Baker, Otis W. Brawley and Leonard S. Marks of the Urological Sciences Research Foundation. The article

by Jean Heller, front page, New York Times, July 26, 1972. Investigative journalism first brought the story to public attention

(http://bit.ly/fmdoUN). This news story is the property of Associated Press via Valeo Intellectual Property, Inc.

38. Ibid.

39. Memorandum, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Office of The Secretary, Merlin K. DuVal, M.D. says: "As

recommended by the Tuskegee Syphilis Study Ad Hoc Advisory Panel, I have decided that the 'Tuskegee Study' as a study of

untreated syphilis must be terminated." (http://bit.ly/LolBMC).

40. Presidential Apology, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), "U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at

Tuskegee" (http://1.usa.gov/ckDD3i).

41. Ibid.

42. Roe v. Wade, Wikipedia (http://bit.ly/11oVBK).

43. Al Sharpton, "It's Not About Obama, It's About Your Momma" (http://bit.ly/vYz55I).

44. Frederick Douglass, "What The Black Man Wants" at the Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society in

Boston, April, 1865, Douglass delivered the following speech on the subject: The Equality Of All Men Before The Law. Again,

please note that Douglass' speech was given within days of the close of the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln.

(http://bit.ly/LHwoOC).

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