5. The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment
The Tuskegee syphilis experiment is probably the most infamous experiment in biological warfare that the United States government conducted. Tuskegee University in Alabama is historically a predominantly African-American college. It rose to national prominence because of the Tuskegee Airmen, who were the first African-American aviators and fought during World War II. However, the men’s patriotism was not rewarded, as the university became the site for an extremely unethical study on syphilis.
While the government may not have intentionally infected people with syphilis, as it did in the case of the Guatemalan military, what it did cause irreparable harm to those already suffering from it. Researchers and doctors told patients that they were being treated for syphilis, when all the while, they were being given “dummy” treatments that contained no medication. The idea was to watch how the disease progressed in people’s bodies, with the intent of finding a cure for the illness that was costing the military a lot of human resources.
The experiment began to come to light in the 1970s, and a major lawsuit was filed on behalf of those who had been effectively denied the treatment that they believed they were receiving. Today, the experiment stands as a hallmark of the need for medical ethics.