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Lecture Notes

Why was this study allowed to continue? Why were black men considered appropriate research subjects who could be tested without consent and then allowed to suffer and die with a curable disease? One answer is a particular definition of race: blacks, as a race, in America were deemed to be less than human - a belief that carried over from systems of slavery in the U.S. The Associated Press reporter who broke the story wrote that "For 40 years, the U.S. Public Health Service has conducted a study in which human guinea pigs, not given proper treatment, have died of syphilis and its side effects." This definition of race allowed scientists to justify the creation of human guinea pigs.