A New York foundation that offered to pay the funeral expenses for Black men who died from syphilis only if the families allowed their loved ones to be dissected as part of the Tuskegee Experiment formally apologised for its part in the inhumane test, the Associated Press reports.

One of the first private philanthropies in the country, the Milbank Memorial Fund offered $100 to the poverty-stricken families, primarily in Alabama, to cover the funeral costs for the men, but only if the families consented to allow scientists to examine the corpses for what they were told was “bad blood.”  In fact, the men had syphilis, which was left untreated to further the experiment.  The 399 men who remained infected were tracked for physical and mental symptoms of the disease, which could have been readily treated with available medications.

The Tuskegee experiment started in 1932 and was not officially ended until 1972, when the study was disclosed in media reports.  By that time, the consequences were devastating:  28 patients died directly from syphilis; 100 died from complications related to syphilis; 40 of the men’s wives were infected with syphilis, and 19 children were born with congenital syphilis.

The long-term impact of the Tuskegee Experiment was that African-Americans became distrustful of medical treatment, particularly when it is provided by the government.  This has had the contemporary impact that Blacks were less likely to get the coronavirus vaccine promoted by the Biden Administration over concern about experimentation.

“The upshot of this was real harm,” Christopher F. Koller, the current president of the Milbank Fund, told The Associated Press in an interview. “It was one more example of ways that men in the study were deceived. And we are dealing as individuals, as a region, as a country, with the impact of that deceit.”

In 1974, surviving study subjects, those infected by the men, and the descendants of those who had already died were awarded $10 million (approximately $60 million in today’s money) as a settlement with the government.