Miss Evers Boys Final

Lesli Paz Mr. Kelly Class #3a Oct 28, 2015 Final Draft Miss Evers’ Boys What would you think if you heard the U.S government had support secret medical experimentation for over 41 years? This is exactly what happened in Tuskegee, Alabama. Unfortunately this is not an isolated case. The film Miss Evers’ Boyswas released on February 22, 1997 and directed by Joseph Sargent. This film was based on “The Tuskegee Study of Untreated Blacks with Syphilis. This experiment selected 412 men infected with syphilis. The doctors made the patients believe that they would receive free treatment but they just wanted to observe how the patients died slowly and painful. This experiment was conducted to compare the results to a white patient’s study that had been done decades before. The doctors also wanted to make history and proved the black doctors and nurses were equal to the white professionals. In the beginning Dr. Sam Brodus and Miss Evers were proud of the study because this would help African Americans with syphilis. Later on, theexperiment’s coordinators had financial problems to conduct the study as a result of the Great Depression. Dr. Douglas who was also in charge of the study found federal financing;however, the study changedand the patients only received placebos and liniments. The doctors didn’t treat the patients because this would change the results and they wouldn’t compare with the white patients results. During the experiment, Miss Evers just tried to help the patients regardless the consequences.

Miss Evers’life makes me think on Mary Kubicek’sexperience working in the cancer research. She a lab assistant who cultured Hella cells for the first time. She worked with Hela cells for long time and she only receivesorders from Dr. Gey. Mary didn’t know the origin of the cells. When Henrietta Lacks the owner of the cells died, Dr. Gey asked Marry to take specimens from Henrietta’s dead body. This was the first time that Mary worked with a dead body. She felt guilty because she realized that all the time she was working with the cells from alive person and her family didn’t know about the research. She didn’t stop working because it was her job and she felts also loyal to Dr.Gey. Mary realized that this was wrong but she couldn’t change it. She continued doing this because in the end this would help more people. Just like Miss Evers, she felt compromised with ther job, but she didn’t abandon her work when she realized the wrong things in the experiment. In the end, Miss Evers was only trying to help her people. Every professional in medicine and justices needs to watch Miss Evers’ Boys. This movie can change people’s mind. In the beginning of the film I considered Miss Evers as hypocritical person because she was taking advantages of the uneducated African American patients with syphilis. However, later on the movie I realized she wasn’t a bad person and she was only trying to help her people. I’m pretty sure that people who experienced a difficult situation where they had to make a choice would understand the hard life that Miss Evers had during the Tuskegee Study. Every person needs to know the importance of medical studies that had been done in the past. Because these experiments, many people can stay healthy today. History teaches us to not make the same mistakes again and harm other people’s life. I hope the government learns about the history and protects our society. The medical experiments are very important, but are most important that the government care more about the citizens because if they don’t care, our society will be abused and used as guinea pigs.