"Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. [Matthew 7:12]"

Dr. Todd brought up the Golden Rule, in which it states that one should "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." After stating this, she asked the class if anyone made decisions based off of this thinking. And I thought to myself that I do, but only sometimes, not always. During class I remember feeling distraught after hearing of the Tuskegee Experiment that occurred from 1932 to 1972. I know for sure that the scientists that participated in this research study did not think of the Golden Rule and how they would have felt if they were in these African-American male's shoes. It boggles my mind that people feel like they are than others merely because of the color of their skin. Just because you are white means that you are entitled to property, and you are able to do whatever you want, how unfair is that? Everyone is born with the same entitlement and the should be treated equally, but I suppose this is how our nation has finally been able to adopt to our morals that we have today. Granted, racism still exists even today, I bet it is no where near as terrible as the early 1900's.
After reading documents about the Tuskegee Experiments I really wonder how in the world this experiment went on for so long without the men being given cures, and after watching the men give the disease to their wife and children, making them suffer as well. This was all in the name of science? I don't think so. I believe it was all a ploy to be able to use science to once again dominant a lower class, since most of the scientists were white. I'm sure they knew the effects they were causing and yet they didn't cease the experiment.
President Clinton ended up delivering a speech in 1997 that said (http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2002/jul/tuskegee/):

"To the survivors, to the wives and family members, the children and the grandchildren, I say what you know: No power on Earth can give you back the lives lost, the pain suffered, the years of internal torment and anguish.

"What was done cannot be undone. But we can end the silence. We can stop turning our heads away. We can look at you in the eye and finally say, on behalf of the American people: what the United States government did was shameful.

"And I am sorry."

This experiment which degraded human beings into test subjects equivalent to animals ended in the year 1972, why did it take more than 20 years to give a formal apology? Throughout the experiment, people should have known they were wrong, and after the experiment they should have known they were wrong, and also by not giving the test subjects who were still alive, they should have felt ashamed by not being able to save a person's life. Aren't researchers supposed to be searching for a cure? Why did they infect these innocent people with what was then an incurable disease, and then find the cure, and ultimately not give it to them. They just sentenced all of them to death as well as all of their loved ones. I just hope we all learn how much another person's life is worth, and how we wouldn't want to be put in that situation.