USA: PRESIDENT CLINTON APOLOGISES FOR SYPHILIS EXPERIMENT

(16 May 1997) English/Nat President Clinton is taking steps to right a wrong by apologising to the black men whose syphilis went untreated because of a federal experiment. He is also seeking to regain the faith of blacks who mistrust the government to this day because of the notorious Tuskegee study, which began in the thirties. The men’s syphilis was left to run its course despite the fact that penicillin was available which could have cured the disease. In a White House ceremony on Friday, President Bill Clinton said he was sorry the men had been betrayed by their government. Clinton apologised to Carter Howard, Charlie Pollard, Herman Shaw, and Fred Simmons on behalf of the United States for having let them suffer for so long during the Tuskegee Syphilis Study. Nearly 400 men signed up with the U-S Public Health Service for free medical care. What these men weren’t told was that they had syphilis. Neither were they told the service was conducting a study on the effects of that disease on the huma