tuskegee as a metaphor

The otherwise appropriate and excellent essay "Uses and abuses of Tuskegee" by Amy L. Fairchild and Ronald Bayer (Essays in Science and Society, Science's Compass, 7 May, p. 919) omits important information about the Tuskegee syphilis experiment.

This appropriately vilified experiment would not have been possible without the collaboration of African American physicians, nurses, and community workers at Tuskegee Institute.

Cartoon from The Atlanta Constitution, 27 July 1997

CREDIT: L. ERICKSON; REPRINTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE ATLANTA JOURNAL AND THE ATLANTA CONSTITUTION

This information is well documented in a book to which the authors refer (1) and in the excellent television documentary "Susceptible to Kindness: Ms. Evers' Boys and the Tuskegee Syphilis Study" by David Feldshush, produced by the American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco. The omission of the collaboration of African Americans in the Tuskegee experiment is common. At a recent conference at Tuskegee (2)...