Tuskgee Study. At the Macon County Health Center in Alabama, the progression of untreated syphilis was analyzed in 600 Black farmers, 399 of whom were infected. The patients were injected with a serum, actually a placebo. Years passed, and only in 1972 did a former member of the health commission confess to the experiment, which incredibly was still ongoing in this remote corner of the American province. Faced with public and scientific outrage, the experiment was immediately suspended. Its sole purpose was essentially to ensure continued state funding. In 1990, a commission of inquiry condemned the incident as immoral, racist, and poorly conducted. In 2006, it was deemed the most infamous study in American history, and organizations were created to prevent its repetition.
