TUSKEGEE, Ala. - (October 20, 2006) - In 1932 the U.S. Public Health Service began a study to determine the effects of untreated syphilis. No lab mice or rabbits were harmed in this study. Instead, the U.S. government had decided to use another test subject for the debilitating disease - African-American men. This study lasted for 40 years in Macon County, Ala., and has left an indelible impact that to this day continues hindrance to the full participation of African Americans and others in medical care and scientific research.

Today, Tuskegee University holds the formal opening of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care. The Center, first established in 1999, holds the unique mission to:

• Promote sensitive and effective health care ecosystems relative to people of color.
• Assist in eliminating racial disparities in medical health-care delivery.
• Promote holistic approaches that coordinate biomedical interventions with healthcare, education and social service programs.
• Educate and train larger numbers of people of color in bioethics to participate in direct study, scientific review and public-policy formation.
• Encourage new levels of trust in the nation's health-care infrastructure to transcend class, race, ethnicity and gender.
• Serve as a clearinghouse and resource in cultural diversity for strategic planning, service and programmatic activity.

"It is the aim of the Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care to transform this particular legacy of racism and abuse," University President Benjamin F. Payton says. "The Bioethics Center works with the local, regional, national and international communities in areas addressing ethical and human values issues in science, technology and health as they impact people of color."

The Bioethics Center at Tuskegee University is the nation's first devoted to engaging the sciences, humanities, law and religious faiths in the exploration of the core moral issues that underlie research and medical treatment of African-American and other underserved people.  The official announcement of the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care, took place in 1997 when former U.S. President Bill Clinton issued an apology to the nation, Tuskegee University, the citizens of Macon County and to the survivors of the U.S. Public Health Services Study.

The Center is home to the Bioethics Program offices, classrooms, labs, a state-of-the-art teleconference room for distance learning education and an auditorium for meetings, lectures and multimedia presentations on topics such as the merging of health-care and faith-based initiatives or methods to improve minority health to eliminate health disparities.

Additionally, the College of Liberal Arts and Education and several of the University's health programs are housed within the Bioethics Center. "This speaks to the commitment the National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care has toward fostering an environment that allows interdisciplinary study between health and the humanities at Tuskegee University," Dr. Vanessa Northington Gamble, director of the Bioethics Center, says. 

"Although the Public Health Services Study in Macon County ended more than 30 years ago, there are pharmaceutical and medical studies that continue to feed the distrust among people of color," she says. "The Center is giving voice to those bioethical concerns."    

The Bioethics Center, formerly known as the John Andrews Building, underwent a $24-million renovation and reconstruction. With contributions from the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Ford Foundation and the Eli Lilly Endowment, the facility, first erected in 1913, stands as a jewel on the campus of Tuskegee University.

"This occasion is excellent in bringing people together to recognize this travesty that occurred within U.S. health care, and it reminds us of what the study meant so many people across the world," says Dr. Leila Willis Frank.

Dr. Frank's father Wilbur Willis, Sr., was among the 400 or so men who went untreated as a result of the government study. He died in July 11, 1970. "I'm happy to be here today to see the rededication to the lives of so many that have come behind those that have participated in the study to better our lives and to understand what health care is and what studies mean," she says.

Tuskegee University is home to about 3,000 students from more than 30 countries and spreads across 450 acres that reach out to encompass another 4,500 acres of forest and agricultural experiment/research station spaces. The University is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools with additional national and professional accreditations in: architecture, business, chemistry, dietetics, education, engineering, clinical sciences, nursing, social work, occupational therapy and veterinary medicine.