Health & Medicine

Last Surviving Health Care Member Associated with Controversial "Tuskegee Syphilis Study" will Speak at the Yale School of Nursing

“The Tuskegee Syphilis Experience and the Implication for Participation in Making Health Policy,” is the title of a talk to be given by Mary Starke Harper on Monday, February 18 at 4:30 p.m. at Yale School of Nursing, 100 Church Street South.
2 min read

“The Tuskegee Syphilis Experience and the Implication for Participation in Making Health Policy,” is the title of a talk to be given by Mary Starke Harper on Monday, February 18 at 4:30 p.m. at Yale School of Nursing, 100 Church Street South.

The talk is part of the school’s Black History Month celebration. Harper, a registered nurse and the last living health care member associated with the study, will be sharing the experience of her involvement with the federally-funded Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which withheld treatment from black men infected with syphilis. She will discuss how this study helped shape the beginning of Human Subject Review Committees in the United States.

Harper is known nationally and internationally as a patient care advocate who has spent 60 years working to improve patient health through her many public policy posts in federal government. Last year, Harper was named a “Living Legend” by the American Academy of Nursing.

This talk is open to the public. It is sponsored by the Yale School of Nursing Dean’s Advisory Committee on Diversity and the Office of Research Affairs, and co-sponsored by the Black Medical Student Organization and the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health’s Multicultural Organization at Yale School of Medicine.