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April 20, 2015

Dr. Irwin Schatz, Lone Critics of Tuskegee Syphilis Study, Dies at 83 
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And Dr. Irwin Schatz, who became a lone critic of the now-notorious
Tuskegee syphilis study years before it was exposed in the press, has
died at the age of 83. For four decades until 1972, the U.S. government
studied the long-term effects of untreated syphilis on poor, black men.
After reading of the study in a medical journal in 1964, Schatz wrote,
"I am utterly astounded by the fact that physicians allow patients with
potentially fatal disease to remain untreated when effective therapy is
available." But a study co-author dismissed his letter, saying it was
the first of its kind they had received. Schatz died of cancer at home
in Hawaii.

 

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