The rationalization of unethical research: Revisionist accounts of the Tuskegee syphilis study and the New Zealand "unfortunate experiment"

Abstract

Two studies, widely condemned in the 1970s and 1980s?the Tuskegee study ofmenwith untreated syphilis and the New Zealand study of women with untreated carcinoma in situ of the cervix?received newdefenses in the 21st century. Wenotedremarkablesimilarities in both the studies and their defenses. Here we evaluate the scientific, political, and moral claims of the defenders. The scientific claims are largely based on incomplete or misinterpreted evidence and exaggeration of the uncertainties of science. The defenders' political arguments mistakenly claim that identity politics clouded the original critiques; in fact such politics opened the eyes of thepublic to exploitation.The moral defenses demonstrate an overreliance on codes of conductandhaveimplications for research ethics today.