A New Tuskegee Experiment ?

August 15, 2013 BY Lewis Margolis and Gregory Margolis In a situation with unsettling similarities to the infamous "Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male," youth and college football players today are part of what amounts to a massive and unethical experiment in concussions. The Tuskegee Study violated basic bioethical principles of respect for autonomy (participants were not fully informed in order to make autonomous decisions), nonmaleficence (participants were harmed, because treatment was withheld after it became the treatment of choice), and justice (only African Americans were recruited). As at Tuskegee, the concussion experiment violates basic bioethical principles. Until the pathological processes of concussions are understood and methods of prevention are tested, there should be major changes in the game of football to decrease, if not eliminate, this primary cause of head trauma in young men.