Doing The Right Thing is Never Easy...and it Comes with Risks

I love people that have the courage, integrity or ethics to Do The Right Thing.

Dr. Irwin Shatz, just four years out of medical school in 1972 criticized the the authors of a Federal study to see what happened when syphilis was left untreated for a long period of time even though we knew how to treat/cure the disease.

The study, known as the Tuskegee Study, followed uneducated black men in Tuskegee, Ala. who were infected with syphilis.

Dr. Shatz said:

"I am utterly astounded  by the fact that physicians allow patients with potentially fatal disease to remain untreated when effective therapy is available. I assume you feel that the information which is extracted from observation of this untreated group is worth their sacrifice. If this is the case, then I suggest the United States Public Health Service and those physicians  associated with it in this study need to re-evaluate their moral judgements in this regard."

The Government said nothing until a health Service Interviewer revealed the study to the Washington Star and later the Wall Street Journal.

We need more people like Dr. Shatz who passed away on April 1.

If you would like to read Dr. Shatz's obituary in today's New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/health/irwin-schatz-83-rare-critic-of-tuskegee-study-is-dead.html?ref=obituaries&_r=0