Dr Tom Kerns
North Seattle Community College

 

Discussion Questions for
Miss Evers' Boys

    1. What is meant by 'zigzagging' (pg 55)? Do you consider it to be ethically good behavior?
    2. Is Dr Brodus right, do you think, when he says (p.55) "they won't understand."?
    3. The study participants were offered "free doctoring." In your judgment, what were some of the ways that this promise was met and and what were some ways it was not met (a question of treatment vs. research).
    4. The study paid the subjects $50 for a coffin and burial services.
      a. Did that seem fair to you? Why or why not?
      b. If the study had been done exactly the same way it was actually done, but the payment to subjects had been $100,000, would that have seemed fair to you?
    5. The study asks a basic research question: is the rate and progression of syphilis in the Black male the same as that for the White male. Is that, in your opinion, a legitimate scientific question?