For about 40 years, the United States Public Health Service misled 600 African American men in a syphilis study. The study was originally intended to test the short-medium term effects of syphilis; however, when a cure was discovered, the researchers decided to prolong the experiment and did not provide the test subjects with the cure. This went on for a few decades until finally the public questioned the ethics behind the study. Met with public outrage, the researchers ended the study and the government allocated 10 million dollars to create the Tuskegee Health Benefit Program.
The only reason to delay the apology would have been because it would have been too soon after the event. Rather, I feel the apology was too late. The consequences of the event were far too dire for the United States Public Health Service to just ignore. Their reputation was damaged and there was a negative public view on ethics in the field of human research. Thus, an apology was absolutely necessary to restore public trust. It was just a matter of time before it was actually given by President Clinton in 1997.
A link to the apology:
http://clinton4.nara.gov/textonly/New/Remarks/Fri/19970516-898.html
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i agree, it's too late to apologize. and what would an apology do? it doesn't make things better, it only serves as an admittance to wrongdoing (if it's even sincere).
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