At the age of 86, the whistleblower who exposed the US government’s inhumane act of withholding syphilis treatment from hundreds of Black men in rural Alabama, famously known as the Tuskegee study, has passed away.
Peter Buxtun played a crucial role in putting an end to one of the most infamous medical research scandals in US history. Unfortunately, Mr. Buxtun passed away on May 18th due to Alzheimer’s disease in Rocklin, California, as confirmed by his attorney, Minna Fernan.
The US Public Health Service carried out a study for a span of 40 years, which led to the death of several hundreds who were left untreated for a sexually transmitted infection. The study’s primary objective was to examine the impact of the disease on the human body through autopsies, at the cost of over 100 lives.
Mr. Buxtun landed a job at the local Public Health Service office in 1965 and while working there, he overheard his colleagues discussing a syphilis case study in Alabama. He immediately raised ethical concerns and filed complaints with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention the following year. However, his concerns were repeatedly rejected, leaving him frustrated.
After leaving the service, he pursued a career in law. However, the knowledge he had acquired about the study prompted him to inform a journalist. In 1972, investigative reporter Jean Heller uncovered the scandal and published an expose, which led to the termination of the 40-year study.
By risking his career, Mr. Buxtun displayed immense bravery that not only saved the lives of countless men but also triggered a significant change in the Health, Education, and Welfare guidelines regarding human subject research. As a result of his actions, a class-action lawsuit was settled out-of-court for a whopping $10 million (£7.7m), with the US government pledging to offer free medical care to the survivors and their families.
In 2004, the last participant of the study passed away. However, its ominous impact still lingers. It has created a sense of mistrust towards seeking medical treatment, and even today, it is cited as a reason for people to avoid getting vaccinated for Covid-19 during the ongoing pandemic.
If left untreated, syphilis can cause bone and dental deformations, deafness, blindness, heart disease, and central nervous system deterioration. It is a highly contagious infection that spreads through sexual contact. An American Medical Association study revealed that untreated syphilis can reduce the life expectancy of black men aged between 25 and 50 years by 17%. This study is consistent with the experiences of the Tuskegee Study subjects.
Born in 1937 in Prague, Mr. Buxtun’s family, including his Jewish father, moved to the US in 1939 to escape Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. He drew parallels between the Tuskegee study and the medical experiments conducted by Nazi doctors on Jewish people and other prisoners.
According to Lille Tyson Head, whose father was a part of the study, family members of the participants are thankful to Mr. Buxtun for his bravery and honesty in revealing the experiment.
