User talk:M.hin.ck/Deadly Deception

The Deadly Deception
Please post your 250-word reflections on The Deadly Deception here, making specific connections to the readings for this week. Due Friday 4/3.

My first thought when watching the movie was how much baggage (both good and bad) is associated with the name Tuskegee. On the one hand you have a legendary group of African American bombers in World War II, a point of pride in American history, and on the other you have the Tuskegee syphilis study, a point of great shame in American history. My second thought came when they started discussing parallels between Nazi scientists at Auschwitz and the syphilis study. Looking back, it’s easy to see how both of these studies were basically one and the same in their moral crimes against humanity. Both involuntarily stripped away the rights of human beings for the sake of some dubious scientific “progress”. The United States was spouting a philosophy of human rights at the Nuremburg trials while simultaneously keeping the Tuskegee Syphillis study running – a piece of hypocrisy only enabled by what I can only assume to be an extraordinary degree to compartmentalize among policymakers. My next thought was about how this related to the story of Henrietta Lacks. As stated in the film, one of the major factors that allowed something like the Tuskegee study to happen was the low level of medical education in the participating subjects such that they weren’t aware of what was being done to them. For instance, a spinal tap is used for diagnosis not treatment; something that would have set off red flags had any of them received a rudimentary medical education. Similarly, in the interview done with Henrietta Lack’s descendants shows a lack of preexisting knowledge of what a cell is, much less the specifics of what was being done with the HeLa cells. Both of these points ultimately point to a glaring flaw in our ideas of medical consent. It’s hard to give true consent if the patient lacks the medical background to understand what is really happening and be an advocate for themselves. Jc181maple (talk) 16:07 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Both the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and the story of Henrietta Lacks were cases where researchers took advantage of poor minorities in the name of science, disregarding their human rights. But while Lacks and her family were unaware of their role, these 400 black men were outright deceived, treated as guinea pigs for an unethical experiment. They were promised treatment for syphilis but instead were given painful procedures, studied, and ultimately denied proper medication, betraying their initial trust in the doctors. Clearly, unethical experiments such these have long-term consequences such as the lack of trust between the black community and white doctors which has persisted to today. What I found surprising was that though the immoral study was published in major journals, no one spoke up about the injustice of the experiments. Even though it happened at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, people turned a blind eye. While consent laws were being passed, the researchers claimed they didn’t apply to the Tuskegee experiment despite the similarities to Nazi experiments, which indicates a high level of hypocrisy. Even after the experiments were exposed, Dr. Cutler refused to take responsibility for his actions and the victims involved were never fully compensated. This film emphasizes not only the necessity of strict research guidelines especially when involving human subjects, but also the importance of holding each other morally responsible. Angela432 (talk) 04:34, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

I have never heard about this experiment until now and I must say that it is extremely appalling. It really shows how the U.S. Public Health Service took advantage of a poor minority of people that were not educated enough to know what was being done to them. I do not believe that it was just a simple coincidence that during that time, all of the participants (about 400 of them according to the video) were all poor and black sharecroppers that the woman in the video referred to as “expendable”. Furthermore, it is shocking how the doctors never really told these new “patients” of theirs what was happening and never helped them, but only monitored the disease as it caused damage to their bodies. It reminds me of how the doctors took advantage of Henrietta Lacks background of gender and class in order to take and use her cells without her permission or telling her, which was wrong, even if it was for a better advancement in medicine. It is also appalling that the main reason behind trying to keep the black community healthy was, as stated by a woman in the video, “so that the white community would not get infected.” What makes it even worse is that at the time, syphilis was heavily feared and with a disease that was so heavily feared, these black men were still left untreated and only monitored to watch and see what the disease would do to their bodies which was dangerous to them. Overall, in this case and in the case of Henrietta Lacks, both participants and subjects were being used not for their own benefits without ever knowing, something that should have never happened. Joseph Oldam (talk) 23:23, 29 March 2020 (UTC)

We often hear the phrase, “knowledge is power,” but we rarely think about its many implications. Generally, we think of it as praise for education’s ability to lift people out of hardship. Such is shown by this week’s film and readings, where a lack of knowledge locked individuals into unfortunate situations. Henrietta’s descendents lacked power to assert themselves, largely because they were never equipped with the tools needed. In Skloot’s initial interview with Sony, he asks her, “‘Can you tell me what my mama’s cells really did?... ‘I know they did something important, but nobody tells us nothing.’” How could one argue the right to ownership of achievements they do not know exist? Likewise, the men in the Tuskegee study were not informed of the true nature of the experiment, and thus were robbed of the power to control their health decisions. There is a darker side to the phrase; “knowledge is power,” seen when one uses it to justify heinous actions. To this day (or rather the day the film was produced), Dr. Cutler, who helped conduct the infamous Tuskegee study, defends it as a valiant conquest of knowledge against a disease plaguing the nation. Though those involved knew the effects of syphilis as well as its treatment, they continued to study its path towards death. Similarly, Henrietta’s cells were taken and distributed without consent for the zest of science. Perhaps the mantra “knowledge is power” is always true, but that does not mean that all power is virtuous. Ewhiteh6 (talk) 02:04, 30 March 2020 (UTC)

An astonishing connection between this week's readings and film that links the Tuskegee Study with the work done with Henrietta Lacks' cells is the pure separation between truth and moral scientific responsibility and proper authority as seen through the government or academic institutions. Notably, in 1947, following the Nuremberg trials, the Nuremberg Codes were designed to primarily protect all humans who agreed to be subjects in experiments, the central principle being Informed Consent, according to the video. This was declared after a court trial. What is bewildering is how a Tuskegee team, led by John Heller, in cahoots with the United States Public Health Service could ignore this and continue the studies through 1972. Where was the governmental regulation and acknowledgement? Science was being used not to regard the welfare of the black men in the study, but just for the satisfaction of learning about the disease, and how it could mainly help the white population. When Henrietta Lacks' cells were taken in 1951 by John Hopkins, four years after the Nuremberg codes had supposedly been implemented, how were physicians so unaware of the lack of morality behind their experimentation? This concept of secrecy flooded these stories as well; Henrietta Lacks' family remained in the dark, powerless years later, and the black men of the study were promised treatment but instead were withheld from it and given placebo medications instead, being lied to and treated as pure subjects, not humans. The lack of regulation and acknowledgment of poor, unmoral experimentation is what bewilders me the most. Mtesta4 (talk) 19:40, 31 March 2020 (UTC)

After watching the film The Deadly Deception I have now realized that taking advantage of people according to their race had been a pattern in the field of medicine for decades throughout the 20th century. Much like Henrietta Lacks, a black poor woman, the black men in Alabama who were chosen for the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment came from poor backgrounds and were never fully informed by the doctors. These men, for the most part were seen as expendable; the physicians seemed to have no care for the rights of the men in the experiment and were thus not concerned about the moral conscience behind their actions. Moreover, the fact that the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was not a secret raises the shocking truth that those involved in creating the experiment saw no foul play. Much like the doctors who used Henrietta Lacks’ cells without her family’s consent, those involved in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment leveraged their authority as doctors in order to get their way. For instance, the film makes it clear that the doctors claimed that the spinal taps performed on more than 500 black men were a special form of free treatment, when in reality they were being taken advantage of. Moreover, I find it a shocking parallel that just as the video claimed that the main reason behind studying syphilis was to protect the white community from being infected, the readings similarly pointed out the mission of finding a polio virus was to cure a disease that predominantly affected white people. Thus, it becomes clear that in both cases, black people in the lower class were taken advantage of in order to benefit the greater white community around them. (Trystan Uphoff) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tuphoff1 (talk • contribs) 00:10, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Given the length and the number of people affected by the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, I was taken aback by my unawareness of this study until watching the film The Deadly Deception. It was shocking to learn how the U.S. government supported active denial of treatment for hundreds of African American men suffering from a deadly disease like syphilis. Taking advantage of the socially disadvantaged poor black sharecroppers who would assume what physicians are doing is morally responsible and conscientious, the medical professionals openly deceived them. Similar to how Henrietta Lacks and her family were not informed of the various usage of her cells in medical research, the government physicians never explained the real intentions or the dangers involved in the study to the recruited men. For example, to recruit their study subjects, they targeted local respected places like churches and schools to announce an “opportunity” to become a special government patient and receive free medicine to cure them of “bad blood.” The physicians also claimed the spinal tap to be a very special examination and the last chance to receive free treatment when in reality it was for the researchers to study the neurological effects of syphilis. All the blood tests, detailed physical exams, X-rays, and years of examination only confirmed existing data on syphilis and showed negative results in their efforts to find a fundamental genetic difference between races. Multiple cases similar to Henrietta Lacks and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study led to the distrust of white medical professionals and clinical trials among the black community, which we should continuously try to build back the trust for the good of our society. Hsim2 (talk) 04:05, 1 April 2020 (UTC)Hajin Sim

Prior to watching this film, I had heard of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, but only had a surface-level knowledge of the significant moral issues present in the study. “The Deadly Deception” was very powerful and informative, and gave me a much deeper understanding of the racism and injustice that fueled the experiment. In addition to this, there were also many parallels between this experiment and the exploitation of Henrietta Lacks for the HeLa cell line. The first connection I noticed between the two was the similarities in the victims of the Tuskegee Experiment and Henrietta Lacks. As explained in the film, the Public Health Service deliberately chose men they viewed as expendable. They were “not only medically disadvantaged, but socially disadvantaged,” and the only value the researchers placed on their lives was for the sake of scientific progress. This is almost identical to Henrietta Lacks, as her body was taken advantage of and her identity viewed as unimportant by the researchers, who really only valued her for her immortal cells. In both cases, the victims were deliberately chosen because of the power the researchers/medical community had over them due to their societal disadvantages. Another parallel between Tuskegee and HeLa was the lasting detrimental effects the cases had on future generations. More specifically, both discuss the distrust of the medical professions still present in the black community today. The readings mentioned this briefly, as Skloot described the fear of “night doctors” and in “The Deadly Deception,” this distrust was also talked about at the end of the film. For me, these two cases really brought to light the long and shameful history of the black community being taken advantage of by researchers. I hope that with books like Skloot’s and films like “The Deadly Deception,” more people can become informed of these racially-motivated injustices and therefore work to ensure this damaging and prejudiced cycle is permanently stopped. --A.Hausker (talk) 16:30, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Seeing the documentary, Deadly Deception, was my first exposure to the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. The events that took place in Tuskegee, Alabama were inhumane and a blatant unethical experiment. It was shocking to me that the Public Health Service could so directly lie to these men allowing syphilis to attack their bodies under the guise of treatment. It was even more shocking when I learned that these men were stopped from receiving actual treatment, even when they were willing to actually pay for it. Unfortunately, knowing the events of Henrietta Lacks from our previous readings, I understand that the Tuskegee experiment is not an isolated case. Same with the Tuskegee case, the Washington Post article explained how unaware Henrietta Lacks and her family were regarding the use of her tumor cells for research. There have been many cases throughout the years that have targetted Blacks by predatory institutes led by “night doctors.” It is interesting to contrast the Tuskegee case with Henrietta Lacks’ case, as the documentary noted that the Tuskegee experiment yielded all negative results, whereas the HeLa cell, according to the book written by Rebecca Skloot, contributed to various fields of medicine. It would be unfair to use the HeLa cell to justify what the doctors have done. In the film, one man explained that there is no valid reason for violating one’s rights, including the “pursuit of science.” So although the HeLa cell has contributed greatly to the progression of science, the Tuskegee case highlights the very serious consequences that can arise with the lack of informed consent in research. (Joseph Kang) Joseph0618 (talk) 23:42, 1 April 2020 (UTC)

Before watching The Deadly Deception, I had not known about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. I am shocked that such an experiment was allowed to happen, and that it involved so many people. In this case, much like the case of Henrietta Lacks, the doctors/scientists took advantage of the patients. The 400 people who were subjects of this study thought they were being treated, but instead the physicians allowed the disease to do its damage, just so they would know what it could do. The promise of treatment wasn’t used just at the beginning, it was a recurring promise. It was brought up again when they started doing the spinal taps. The part that shocked me most is that the experimenters were all doctors. In other words, their job is to treat and help people, yet they did the exact opposite. In addition, these doctors had the green light from the government to do what they did. The Public Health Service official (Clark) even called the conditions of the county “ideal experimenting conditions.” From what Clark said, it seemed to me that there was absolutely no intention of actually helping the people involved in this study. It was said in the video that people trusted doctors and scientists to be ethical and have good moral standards when providing treatment and conducting studies. The Public Health Service and all the doctors who conducted the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment violated that trust, just as the Hopkins doctors who took Henrietta Lacks’s cells without her consent violated the trust that the community had in Hopkins. (Rishi Bachani)Rbachan1 (talk) 19:19, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

I had previously heard about the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment and its unethical practices, but I never truly realized the extent of ethical violations until watching the documentary. I was most shocked to learn that the Tuskegee Experiment was performed as a means of saving funds since actual treatment was too expensive. Adversely affected by racial and class discrimination, the stories of both Henrietta Lacks and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment highlight the prevalence of manipulation by those with power and privilege on poor black communities. Lacks was taken advantage of with the unauthorized use of her tumor cells, while Tuskegee study subjects were misled into thinking they were receiving treatment, when in reality physicians were performing invasive procedures, like spinal taps, to gain a better understanding of syphilis. In the documentary, physicians described their subjects as “expendable”, which also seems implicitly present in Lacks's story. Moreover, the consideration of ethics, in both cases, was overshadowed by the pursuit of progressing science. Instead of being appalled at the medical violations, Tuskegee researchers were “excited” about their results, motivating them to perform further experiments. On the other hand with Henrietta Lacks, researchers were motivated by the scientific potential that her cells provided in studying viruses and other cells. As a result of the lack of transparency in cases like Lacks and Tuskegee study subjects, there remains large distrust in black communities with medical services. However, by bringing to light these controversies (like documentaries) and making amends, I believe that these historic tensions can eventually amend. (Jordan Jiao) Jordanj140 (talk) 19:57, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

The HeLa Cell Line and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments share many similarities in their lack of ethical practice. Most obviously, both experiments lacked transparency between scientists and subjects. In the Tuskegee study, African patients were promised to be treated for syphilis and to receive life insurance as compensation for their commitment but were instead given a placebo. Additionally, investigators told patients that the Spinal Tap examination as part of their treatment, while they were studying the neurological effects of syphilis. Subjects were also hidden from the medical name for their condition and instead were tested on and stigmatized for having “Bad Blood.” Rebecca Skloot highlights the untruthfulness of Johns Hopkins Medical staff in an interview with the Lacks family, as Mrs. Lacks’ son Lawrence inquisitively asked, “What my mama’s cells did?” Another commonality between these studies was the lack of respect for minority individuals. Both the Deadly Deception film and Rebecca Skloot noted that the burden of human experimentation rested on the socially disadvantaged. Much like scientists exploited Henrietta’s cell line without consent from her family, the Tuskegee scientists also conducted "road roundups", capturing subjects who lacked the autonomy to oppose any of the scientist’s requests. What was most disappointing to learn from both the readings and video was that both experiments occurred so close in time to each other, suggesting that scientists cannot take responsibility for their mistakes. For example, despite the passing of the Nuremberg Code in response to the scientific misconduct of the Nazis during World War I, Tuskegee scientists felt privileged enough to see their study as an exception. Instead, they portrayed their study as an opportunity for Africans to receive healthcare that they otherwise would not. Amathu15 (talk) 20:15, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Some of the greatest advancements in medical history came at the expense of the socially disadvantaged—mainly black—communities across the nation, people who the US government could exploit with little to no questions asked. The Henrietta Lacks case and the infamous Tuskegee syphilis experiment are just some of many cases of racial exploitation. Prior to seeing the film, I hadn’t grasped the true magnitude of the extent racism played in the medical world. The Tuskegee syphilis experiment was a disgusting case of human rights violation within the US and was definitely not the only one of its kind. Under the guise of helping the syphilis-inflicted community, the US public health service gambled with the lives of the socially disadvantaged black men by using them to study the effects of untreated syphilis until death. Even after a treatment emerged for syphilis, researchers in the study went to great lengths to prevent the Tuskegee men from receiving it. Through both these cases, it becomes quite apparent how little value the government and medical professionals placed on the lives of blacks. As the film puts it, they were “expendable.” The blatant disregard of the researchers for the Nuremberg code calling for informed consent insinuates that these men weren’t seen as humans deserving rights, rather test subjects free to be manipulated by the white men in authority, even to their deaths. Even today, the idea of exploiting the socially disadvantaged communities continues to some degree and this, coupled with the past cases, left a lasting sentiment of distrust of white doctors in the black community. Ewu19 (talk) 21:03, 2 April 2020 (UTC)ewu19

This video reinforced the idea from the readings that the black community of the past was left uninformed and in the dark. In this case, the doctors told the community they would get “free treatment” and that they were there to “cure bad blood”. In reality, the people were transformed from patients to experimental subjects who were studied and used with no benefit to them. In fact, parts of the study such as the spinal tap put the men in a large amount of pain while telling them it was a “very special free treatment” and it was their “last chance for treatment” when it was actually not helping their disease at all. Finally, they restricted the men of this study from getting actual treatment when the Public Health Service pushed for syphilis treatment programs and when penicillin came out though they knew men were dying. When the CDC created a panel and they voted to continue the study and withhold treatment from the men, it showed that even at that point, the educated men were choosing to continue the unfairness of the past. In the case of Henrietta Lacks, her doctor just took her cells and mass produced them without telling Lacks and her family. This reading as well as the video showed that during this time period, the educated white men chose to not take the time necessary to tell African American (less educated) people what they were doing to them as they didn’t think they would understand. This was unfair to the patients as they were stripped of their right to make a choice regarding their treatment and in many cases, didn’t even know what disease they had. Adevire1 (talk) 22:31, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

Despite my knowledge that the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment was one of the most unethical experiments carried out in the United States (another being the Stanford Prison Experiment), the story of how the scientists, the government, and other people colluded to keep these men unaware of the true nature of this study is truly deplorable. The film, Deadly Deception, reinforced the ideas on inequality and condescension on blacks by the white community that were discussed in the Henrietta Lacks story. The underlying motivation for the study was to observe whether or not blacks had a genetic predisposition to syphilis when compared to white people. In order to get test subjects, the scientists used black people a poor county and vaguely told these men that they had “bad blood” and that they would provide them with free treatment. This sort of deception is somewhat reminiscent of Dr. Gey’s and others involvement in hiding the true identity of the person where HeLa was found. It is a result of this deception and underlying racial tensions between the whites and blacks that these sorts of events (hiding HeLa’s origin from the Lacks and the public, and the study) that resulted in a loss of trust in white doctors and scientists from the black community. Additionally, the scientists didn’t truly obtain the consent of the men (withheld important information to trick them into participating) which mirrors how the scientists did not obtain consent from the Lacks family to commercialize and use HeLa. Dlu16 (talk) 23:59, 2 April 2020 (UTC)

After watching the documentary “The Deadly Deception” I have realized that minorities have always been used as easy test subjects in medicine for as long as public health has been a concern. The documentary has made me realize how important medical ethics are, and why it is so important for doctors to protect the rights and privacy of their patients. It is incredible that still in the 1970s, the United States Public Health Service was approving human experimentation with the idea of using uneducated minorities as guinea pigs to help keep the white population healthy. This is no different than what Hopkins did to Henrietta lacks. Although doctors did not experiment on Henrietta, they still took full advantage of her family’s lack of resources and education to make millions off of her body. Henrietta’s son, Sony, did not even know what his mother’s cells were used for years after she had died. Similarly, the victims of the Tuskegee study had no idea what they were being infected with. Personally, I find this outrageous and now I understand better than ever why today there is such an importance placed on bioethics classes. I also better understand the level of prejudice that African Americans have dealt with throughout their history. It is one thing to socially discriminate a group, but to medically discriminate and perform experiments on a group is honestly no different from what the Nazis did in the 1940s. The only way to combat this is by making sure people are educated on the injustices that have been committed so that they never happen again.Macullau (talk) 00:50, 3 April 2020 (UTC)Mauricio

Both "The Deadly Deception" and Henrietta Lacks' story have made me give much more thought into the importance of medical ethics/bioethics than before. Watching the film and reading into how HeLa cells were created, I realize that it is easy for us in the 21st century to look back and say, "Wow. I cannot believe they did such horrible things." Yet, as seen in the video, one of the few public health officials that worked as part of the syphilis program still alive today even now maintains that the experiment was justified in its initiatives and methodology. Likewise, there are still people today, as evidenced in the comments section of the Henrietta Lacks Building article, who believe that the lack of informed consent in the mass production of HeLa cells was completely justified. Thus, I do not think it is appropriate for us to nowadays say that we have reached enlightenment and have understood all there is to know about ethics; to evidence this, controversies in the field of medicine, such as abortion, cloning, physician-assisted suicide, etc. are still widely debated and could potentially lead to very different ethical interpretations in the future. However, I do think that it is fair for us to say that by learning about Henrietta Lacks and the African American subjects of Macon County, we can do much to avoid similar violations of human morality in the future. Unlike what happened in both cases, we should stay vigilant in the pursuit of knowledge and that "for the greater good" will never be a valid reason to do wrong. Likewise, I understand that there are organizations and associations that control how experiments are conducted in the United States. To this, I say: fantastic! I believe that not only should we continue to uphold the values established in the Nuremberg Code (which both the syphilis program and the Henrietta Lacks case violated) but also to expand upon and revise them as we gain greater insight into what is moral and what is not. Jsun72 (talk) 02:02, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment as shown in the film “Deadly Deception” and the case of Henrietta Lacks and her miraculous cells share two common themes: deception and discrimination. Both cases took place at the same time, in the beginning stages and into the heart of the Civil Rights Movement, but both conductors blatantly ignored the points being made there for personal gain. The Tuskegee experiment shows much more obvious deception, with subjects being poked, prodded, lied to about medications, and given false hope with treatment that they were not truly receiving. Henrietta Lacks was deceived in a much quieter fashion, with her cells being put across the medical field as one Helen Lane and her and her family being stripped the recognition that they deserve for her great medical contribution. As The study at Tuskegee went on for 30 years longer after being recognized as unethical (penicillin being withheld from black subjects), Henrietta’s name was not recognized as being behind the HeLa cells until 20 years after her death. It was simply not of importance at the time by cause of racial motivation, that the black community was seen as less than human. Both cases led to positive outcry by the public to improve medical transparency and to put an end to unethical research, which succeeded. Research now cannot be performed without informed consent, partly thanks to the Tuskegee outcry, and transparency has greatly improved in the medical world since the story of Henrietta Lacks broke. The fact that both of these cases exist remind me that the Lacks case is not isolated, and that there are many smaller, unrecognized acts of discrimination and deception in the medical world; That the medicine is not infallible. BiancaSkelton (talk) 03:19, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

The film, Deadly Deception, reinforced the concept of marginalized communities, such as the African American community, being misinformed and look downed upon by the white community, which is highlighted in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. The government launched a syphilis program in poor, black communities, which became a breeding ground for unethical experimentation on unintelligent and deprived people as described by white government officials. There was a preconceived notion that black people were inherently, genetically inferior to white people, accounting for black people’s apparent lust, lack of morality, and proneness to syphilis and other infectious diseases. Black residents became treated as test subjects and were promised to receive “free treatment,” in order to cure their “bad blood,” yet received no beneficial treatment at all. Parts of the study, specifically the spinal tap, was advertised as a very special examination and last chance for treatment, but inflicted pain upon the men and provided no benefit to the disease at all. Furthermore, the government attempted to appeal all efforts for the black men to receive beneficial treatment for syphilis. The director of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment restricted the men from receiving penicillin to treat the disease, which was a breakthrough drug being promoted by the Public Health Service to treat syphilis, due to their desire to continue the Tuskegee study and ignorance of the Civil Rights Movement promoting the rights of African Americans. Overall, the black community lacked were not treated as humans, but as experimental test subjects unable to challenge the authority of the educated white men. In terms of Henrietta Lacks, her cells were used by Dr. Gey and became mass proliferated to develop a vaccine to polio and ushered a new wave of scientific discoveries and fields of medicine. However, Gey withheld the identity of Lacks, another form of deception, and did not inform Lacks’ family of the rapid popularity of her cells. Clearly, both the readings and the film highlight the racial tensions governing medicine and unethical scientific experimentation during this time period, as educated white men took advantage of black patients and citizens for the sake of medical progress. Lacks and the black community were denied their rights to privacy and consent and were exploited as experimental subjects by doctors and governmental authorities to advance scientific agendas and gain profit and prestige. Pnovello (talk) 02:15, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Had the Deadly Deception and readings regarding Henrietta Lacks not been assigned to us, I wouldn’t have known that innovations within public health have occured at the expense of minority communities. Both the story of Henrietta Lacks and her HeLa cells and the Tuskegee Syphilis study, showcase the implications of lacking consent in the name of science. While Lacks’ HeLa cells were mass produced to be used as testing material for medical endeavors, the Black men recruited for the Tuskegee study were falsely promised medical treatment for syphilis as physicians viewed them as nothing more than study subjects. Though these are two different events in public health history, both served to enhance my beliefs about ethical research and the importance of protecting underserved communities from exploitation. George Strait’s narration of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study helped me empathize with the frustration faced by patients who were let down by the medical system, whether it be the study subjects or members of Lacks’ family. Prior to watching this documentary, I realized how in many aspects, Lacks’ race and background contributed to her being seen as a dispensable science lab. After watching the Deadly Deception, I understood the disappointment and frustration minorities felt as they realized they were being used for others’ purposes with absolutely no consent. This left me thinking about the evolving relationship between progress, science and ethics. To what extent has the conflation of race and progress influenced unethical medical practices? Can we provide equitable healthcare while protecting minority communities? Fatehazannath (talk) 03:11, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

In the film “Deadly Deception,” witnessing how scientists treated research subjects like guinea pigs was shocking; they imagined their subjects could never comprehend the nature of their study, nor were they worthy of anything resembling an informed consent policy. I was appalled to see that scientists were so willing to risk the livelihood of their test subjects to further their study. It was an incredibly racist assumption that the pathology of syphilis would differ significantly among black men in comparison to that of white men. I appreciated that the movie illustrated the events of the time, such as the Nuremberg trials, as it was difficult for me to picture the past expectations of the medical community. It also shows how science has evolved to protect human subjects. Specifically, in terms of refraining from causing physical and psychological damage. There are striking similarities in terms of the story of Henrietta Lacks, as scientists took her cells without this pillar of consent, causing immense distress and harm. Both Ms. Lacks and the Tuskegee study participants were black, came from poverty, and were manipulated by the healthcare system for scientific research aimed at serving whites. For the prior, this research was used for a polio vaccine (amongst countless other purposes) and the latter, a cure for syphilis. In both cases, those being tested on came from societal disadvantages, and thus, served as targets for government officials and medical personnel. I found it ironic that the Public Health Initiative to launch a combative campaign regarding the syphilis epidemic in the United States was run by a prominent designer of the Tuskegee study, Raymond Vonderler. Although, not surprising given what began to unfold. I hope that public health officials of the future will continue to enforce informed consent, and raise awareness about it for the everyday person, with an emphasis on those undergoing experimental clinical trials and also the intellectually disabled community. - Paige (I don't know why but Wiki isn't automatically generating a "sign" for me. This is a note to say I wrote this!)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.191.50.28 (talk) 04:35, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

After watching the film, The Deadly Deception, I feel that I have a better contextual understanding of this week's readings. I was able to draw connections between the people affected in both of these cases. The community of Tuskegee and Henrietta Lacks (and her family) were similar in that they both fell victim to unethical experimentation conducted within parts of the US health system. Being of similar races and classes, these people were targeted because of their social and medical handicaps. They were taken advantage of by physicians and officials who viewed their lives as expendable or sacrificial for the greater good of society. These people and their families were kept in the dark about matters concerning their health. In the Tuskegee cases, they were restricted from treatment that was so accessible to the rest of the country, even being turned down if they took matters into their own hands to seek help elsewhere – which is an idea so unfathomable in today’s context. Another similarity between the two cases is that there was never proper recognition nor compensation for the victims and their families. The people of Tuskegee were given a fraction of what they initially sought in the lawsuit and the Lack’s family never received any benefits (while companies profited millions off HeLa cells). To this day, there remain people who believe that such experimentation was necessary for the advancement of medicine, sweeping the injustices that occurred to real people and their families under the rug. This leads me to wonder what other experiments were being conducted within the US health system that followed this pattern of deception and discrimination – many of these were most likely undocumented. Regardless, we must acknowledge such faults in the history of medicine in order to learn and grow from our mistakes or we will find ourselves again in similar circumstances. SadieAbboud (talk) 06:46, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

In “The Deadly Deception”, the Tuskegee study was likened to the experiments done by the Nazi's during World War II, and rendered me the same feeling I had when I finished watching The Schindler List. The fact that two human lives can be viewed so jarringly different from one another, one seen as more valuable than the other, is just so hard for me to comprehend. How much evil does someone have to have in their heart to believe they are above someone else of their own species? This attitude was not only apparent in the Tuskegee study, but also in what happened to Henrietta Lacks. Both instances occurred due to wealthier whites thinking they’re above poorer blacks, and then using them to their own advantage. It is stated in The Deadly Deception that there was a widespread fear of syphilis amongst the white communities, and so therefore they decided to study black patients, for the sole purpose of benefiting the white population. Henrietta Lacks suffered that same injustice, as her cells were taken and used on studies to help really only the higher class white patients who could afford the new treatments being developed, as well as bring fame to the researchers who took her cells, while she got nothing. Also surprising to me is how the health professionals were somehow able to blatantly lie to the subjects of the Tuskegee study. Telling them that the excruciating spinal tap was a treatment, and that the vitamins being given to them were medicine, is beyond immoral. Henrietta Lacks’ family was also lied to, in the sense that the truth was withheld from them. Hopefully being taught about such horrors in history will help us learn from those mistakes, seeing how unjust they are, and never repeat them again.Reneeliiu (talk) 14:27, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

After watching "The Deadly Deception", the film served to enhance my view on the readings. Both situations showed me how little life of the poor, African American citizen was valued in American life at that era in time. However, even with these mistakes being made and how egregiously bad those mistakes may seem to our time, medical research and experimentation has come a long way to correct these ethical dilemmas while also being able to further medical science. Even with this idea in mind, both of accounts opened my eyes to the idea that the lives of the poor were utilized to benefit the lives of the privileged. What makes this idea even worse, was how stereotypes and stigmas were used to reinforce this use of experimentation. For example, in the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, it had come to be known that syphilis would react differently in African Americans than it would in white Americans. Henrietta Lacks had suffered the same fate because her cells had been used to benefit the upper class white Americans who yearned for some protection against harmful diseases such as polio. Also, both of these accounts enhanced my understanding of the lack of recognition given to the African Americans who had been forced to sacrifice their health for projects such as these. This idea reinforces the following theme in that there was little regard to the value of the life for a poor, African American in this era. Each person was seen to be as expendable as the next. - Chris Pantelis — Preceding unsigned comment added by Cpantelis1 (talk • contribs) 15:38, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

This NOVA episode is perhaps one of the most interesting documentaries I have seen in quite a while. While the story of Henrietta Lacks illuminates one instance of medical misconduct, the Tuskegee study shows how such misconduct could persist for decades, taking advantage of poor, uneducated black men. Of particular interest to me is the justification used by doctors to extend the study and prevent its closure. One doctor used the “too far to quit” reasoning to extend the scope of the study. When researchers were compared to the Nazi doctors, they shrugged such claims off without giving thought to the similarities. Tuskegee researchers even offered participants life insurance, meaning that they must have known their efforts were in direct conflict with the good of the patient. While sacrifices must be made in the name of controlled scientific studies, to knowingly misrepresent a study crosses the ethical sign. At the end of the day, the hippocratic oath’s “Do no harm” should be the guiding force for all physicians. Zeeshaan Chunawala (talk) 15:57, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Both "The Deadly Deception" and Henrietta Lacks' story have made me supply an awful lot greater thinking into the significance of scientific ethics/bioethics than before. Watching the movie and studying into how HeLa cells have been created. Yet, as viewed in the video, one of the few public fitness officers that labored as phase of the syphilis software nonetheless alive nowadays even now continues that the test was once justified in its initiatives and methodology. Likewise, there are nonetheless human beings today, as evidenced in the remarks area of the Henrietta Lacks Building article, who trust that the lack of knowledgeable consent in the mass manufacturing of HeLa cells was once absolutely justified. Thus, I do no longer assume it is suitable for us to presently say that we have reached enlightenment and have understood all there is to understand about ethics; to proof this, controversies in the discipline of medicine, such as abortion, cloning, physician-assisted suicide, etc. are nevertheless broadly debated and ought to probably lead to very distinctive moral interpretations in the future. However, I do assume that it is truthful for us to say that by using gaining knowledge of Henrietta Lacks and the African American topics of Macon County, we can do a whole lot to keep away from comparable violations of human morality in the future. Unlike what took place in each case, we ought to remain vigilant in the pursuit of expertise and will in no way be a legitimate purpose to do wrong. Likewise, I recognize that there are groups and associations that manage how experiments are carried out in the United States. Owen Murphy — Preceding unsigned comment added by Omurphy5 (talk • contribs) 16:36, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Watching "The Deadly Deception" made me more aware of one of the greatest human rights violations our healthcare system has faced yet. It is very blatantly obvious that this study would be designed around getting people that are uninformed and uneducated to participate and be tricked into basically giving their lives away for the sake of progress. Much like in the case of Henrietta Lacks, I believe that this is yet another example of medicinal research losing sight of what's important and doing absolutely anything for the sake of progress. However, one thing was really irking me while watching the documentary. It appeared to me as if none of the physicians ever stopped to wonder about the ethical issues with the study while conducting it, which makes me question their validity as actual physicians, much less as actual functioning people. Sebawmm24 (talk) 16:58, 3 April 2020 (UTC)Sebawmm24

“The Deadly Deception” film was greatly informative on a study I had heard about, but was not previously informed on the details and true magnitude of the injustices which occurred. This film effectively conveys the information using a play, actual subjects, individuals associated with the experiment, and historical videos. Using the actual accounts and historical evidence, the film exposed the lasting racism within the United States’ public health system throughout (most of) the twentieth century. As with many of these illicit studies, there was a strong prejudice that African-American lives were somehow less valuable, and therefore could be used for the “good of civilization”. The issue with using this reasoning, which was presented as a counterargument from one the actual scientists involved in the study, is that these individuals did not give consent and the population of the study was blatantly chosen due to racism. The scientists chose to let the subjects suffer and deceived them into not seeking actual treatment. Unlike the Henrietta Lacks story, the group which was targeted and the means which the study was performed was largely shared information. In this case, many knew about it, but did not see anything wrong with it. In the case of the Lacks family, Henrietta’s name was not publicly spread for years after many of the scientific discoveries were made with her cell line. Similarly, her family was ignored and not compensated for the millions of dollars earned by those (nonconsensually) researching with her cells. In both cases, the physicians and public health officials tricked the vulnerable population into doing something that would “benefit the individual being treated”. The physicians tricked the Lacks family into thinking the collection of Henrietta’s cells would help future generations of her family. Those in Alabama were told that they would receive treatment for their disease. Both cases have led to valuable bioethical reform, and those unknowingly involved in experimentation should receive significant compensation. MKichar1 (talk) 17:19, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

My previous impression was that the Tuskegee Syphilis Study started when there were already treatments available but was much shorter, maybe only a few months. After watching The Deadly Deception, I am much more horrified to know that hundreds of people were not only abandoned when funds ran short but were purposefully lied to and restrained from getting real treatment for a disease that causes great suffering, if not death, as if they were worth no more than lab rats. It stood out to me how deeply the racism ran, with high-authority scientists making more and more justifications for not terminating the study. Several revolutions in treatments occurred yet the unwitting study participants were not only not removed from the study but actively barred from seeking treatment. I also found it particularly upsetting that the high reverence and trust in the Tuskegee Institute was used against underprivileged African Americans throughout the entire study.

It was shocking to realize that an individual who brought up the Nuremberg Code to the one who ran Tuskegee study at the time was taken as insulting, that he found it emotionally wounding to even be asked such a question. The Nuremberg Code was drafted specifically to prevent any similar instance from happening, whether Nazi-related or not, but was not taken for what it should have been. Such basic human ethics should never be related to anything political, and that the Tuskegee study was not stopped for another 25 years after the Nuremberg Code was written shows that it truly was the unrelenting racist perspectives of the scientists in power that influenced their ethical decisions. Furthermore, the Milgram study that demonstrated the psychology behind Nazi war crimes resided latently in humans took place around 10 years before the Tuskegee Study was finally terminated. CellFay (talk) 17:26, 3 April 2020 (UTC)

Watching “Deadly Deception” made me realize that medical ethics has not always been an issue that is valued. The Tuskegee experiment took advantage of the poor and vulnerable black community for scientist to do research on syphilis. I personally feel that this research experiment was less about learning more about syphilis and more about exercising the power of white supremacy over blacks. The scientists conducted their experiment with the preconceived idea that blacks had “bad blood”, had a smaller brain, were more lustful and immoral. The doctors deceived their patients, giving them the impression that they were being treated for their “bad blood” and going as far as giving the patients placebo medication, when in reality they were observing and collecting their personal data for research. The scientists were even surprised when their data revealed that syphilis affected blacks the same as it affected whites.

“Deadly Deception” along with the articles about “Henrietta Lacks” made me realize that unethical medical practices driven by racism was a prevalent issue. The Tuskegee experiment would have been ethical if the patients were not pressured to attend the experiment, if scientists were transparent with the patients throughout the experiment, and if the patients received credit. Similarly, the use of HeLa cells would have ethical if George Gey was transparent to Lacks and/or her family, asked Lacks or her family if her cells could be used for study, and gave Lacks and her family the credit they deserved. Sometimes in medical practices and science research the distinction of ethics is not very clear. However, in both the Tuskegee experiment and case of the HeLa cells, the ethical violation was very clear and was driven by racism. I think this could have been largely avoided if researchers were transparent with their patients. Lyang82 (talk) 12:23, 4 April 2020 (GMT)

After watching The Deadly Deception and reading the first two chapters of Skloot’s Henrietta Lacks, a key question comes to my mind regarding ethics and consent in medical and clinical research involving human participants. Human studies often are designed in a way so that the participants don’t know the true goal of the study that they are participating. Usually, in order to eliminate bias, participants are simply told to complete a task without knowing the goal of the study. A great example of this is the placebo effect, where individuals are given a “medicine” or device that they are told will have a certain effect, but in reality, the effect “produced” by this object is imagined by the participant. For example, studies involving individuals with mental illness, such as depression, are prime examples of the placebo effect. Patients are given sugar pills and told it will alleviate their depression when it does nothing in reality. However, often a patient reports being improvements after taking the pill. No medical change has occurred, but clearly a positive treatment outcome has occurred. Thus, would it be ethical to continue giving the patient the placebo under the guise that the placebo is actually a treatment, or should the researchers come clean to the patient who is experiencing positive effects from the placebo and risk the patient relapsing into depression? Obviously, the practice of using a placebo contrasts starkly with the times of the Tuskegee Syphilis study where the black participants were completely manipulated and deceived by the scientists in order to achieve the aims of the study with no regard to their actual wellbeing, but it appears that an common element remains in these two examples. Ultimately, as the readings and the movie show, this boils down to the idea of responsibility and transparency that the researchers have to the participants to ensure that the study does not harm the patients in the long term. Moving forward, I think it’s important to keep Henrietta Lacks and the men of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment in mind as we move forward to ensure that no matter the study, when human participants are involved, the wellbeing of the participant is always the priority. Nhooloo1 (talk) 02:57, 4 April 2020 (UTC)nhooloo1

Both "The Deadly Deception" and the readings on Henrietta Lacks teach us an important lesson: the need to consider ethics and welfare of human beings in science and medical research. While this is a crucial point both sources make, one thing that particularly shocked me was how people were willing to make up excuses to commit actions they would normally consider unethical. In the Henrietta Lacks reading, an example of this was how knowledge was withheld from Henrietta and her family that her cells were going to be used as samples for tests and experiments. George Gey, other scientists, and experimenters were willing to go as far as creating a pseudonym for Henrietta to hide the knowledge from her family and the general public. This was an unethical act that was masked in the name of science, for the good of developing cures and vaccines for various diseases and scientific advancement. In the film, we see a similar pattern: public health officials and researchers of Syphilis, or "bad blood," were willing to go as far as withholding information and even treatment from the "test subjects" in pursuit of greater scientific knowledge. Perhaps this pursuit, this goal of something greater was able to justify the human ethics violations inside all of these individuals' minds, but the fact that the same individuals denounced Nazi scientists while continuing to support their own research of a similar wavelength shows how we can become blind under the deception that everything is for "the greater good." This made me realize the dangers of viewing people in a category, such as by race, socioeconomic status, or by positions of power (experimenter vs test subjects). Gkim70 (talk) 03:00, 4 April 2020 (UTC)Gkim70

After watching The Deadly Deception, I realized the extent to which the US had racism in its history. This is because when I thought of racial prejudice in our history, I often thought of Henrietta Lacks as her case was the most touched on in high school. but this study felt more impactful to me because it used so much deception against the black community. It was also an immoral act of extreme deception towards a poor community, and as the movie said, it was targeted to them because they could not rally up support for themselves and were expected not to fight back, because they weren't educated enough to think something was wrong. It was quite disheartening to see that just because of their race, the sharecropper population of Alabama was chosen as the guinea pigs for this study, and that they were told they had "bad blood" (which referred to syphilis but was also a very unclear diagnosis). This made me think that a bigger push for racial justice, such as in Lacks' case, is very well warranted and that this should serve as an extremely important lesson for researchers now. Especially with compensation, it was sad to see that the families of those in the study and Lacks were not well paid for their losses and even taken advantage of because a smaller amount of money meant more "for the barrel" in the poor families. So, the government had given them much less than what they deserved off of this logic, again taking advantage of their socioeconomic status. From these historical mistakes, researchers should strive to help the population without hurting others against their knowledge, and that they should always receive thorough consent from their subjects. Backbrush (talk) 16:17, 4 April 2020 (UTC)

An eye opening illustration of racism and scientific justification of abuse, the Tuskegee Syphilis experiment described in The Deadly Deception is both surprising and saddening. To imagine that one could intentionally experiment on hundreds of men for decades without their informed consent, then prevent them from receiving treatment when it became available is ethically wrong and inhumane, the men truly becoming data points and needlessly suffering in the name of science. It is no wonder that so many minorities and, especially African Americans, are hesitant and distrusting of scientists and medicine, after being taken advantage of and experimented for so long and in affiliation with the Tuskegee institute, an renown institution in educating African Americans. In connection with Henrietta Lacks, we can draw many parallels, the lies of treatment and helping, all the while using her to conduct experiments and no real intent to help. Poor families targeted because of their need of the compensation, and lack of education to challenge experimenters or understand what was really going on. In the end, the syphilis experiment and Henrietta Lacks story serve as a warning and lesson for the future experiments, that they may be done ethically and respectfully for the subjects and their families. Conradsay (talk) 19:29, 10 April 2020 (UTC)