Random Thought of the Day

Quote: kenarman

By qualifying your statement with the word "Legitimate" you are just asking to be the arbitrator of what research is to be done and recognized. Everyone will have have a different definition for "Legitimate".

So what is your definition of the term?

We never know what information found will relate to another significant finding in another field even if it seemed inherently useless to study it.

Quote: rxwine

We never know what information found will relate to another significant finding in another field even if it seemed inherently useless to study it.

And that's the purpose of scientific research. It is mankind's interest to learn all there is to learn about....everything.

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Was this study "wasteful"?

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The Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee Timeline
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In 1932, the USPHS, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began a study to record the natural history of syphilis. It was originally called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” (now referred to as the “USPHS Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee”). The study initially involved 600 Black men – 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not have the disease. Participants’ informed consent was not collected. Researchers told the men they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local term used to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. In exchange for taking part in the study, the men received free medical exams, free meals, and burial insurance.

By 1943, penicillin was the treatment of choice for syphilis and becoming widely available, but the participants in the study were not offered treatment.
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https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm

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Viagra was originally intended to treat hypertension. But it could be something much more mundane, like someone studying facial expressions finding a link to a disease that wasn’t known about before. You never know.

Quote: kenarman

By qualifying your statement with the word "Legitimate" you are just asking to be the arbitrator of what research is to be done and recognized. Everyone will have have a different definition for "Legitimate".

Before the Civil War, was slavery legitimate?

Quote: DoubleGold

Was this study "wasteful"?

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The Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee Timeline
.
.
.
In 1932, the USPHS, working with the Tuskegee Institute, began a study to record the natural history of syphilis. It was originally called the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis in the Negro Male” (now referred to as the “USPHS Untreated Syphilis Study at Tuskegee”). The study initially involved 600 Black men – 399 with syphilis, 201 who did not have the disease. Participants’ informed consent was not collected. Researchers told the men they were being treated for “bad blood,” a local term used to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia, and fatigue. In exchange for taking part in the study, the men received free medical exams, free meals, and burial insurance.

By 1943, penicillin was the treatment of choice for syphilis and becoming widely available, but the participants in the study were not offered treatment.
.
.
.
https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/timeline.htm

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For multiple reasons, this study was an abomination in how it was conceived, conducted and analyzed. Not only was the study unethical by the standards of the day, the design and implementation of the study did not withstand and still has not withstood scrutiny using the scientific method. So, yes, this study was not legitimate and was wasteful in terms of money spent and unalleviated or inflicted human suffering.

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Quote: GenoDRPh

So what is your definition of the term?

'Legitimate' is a subjective term so there is no universal agreement on what might be legitimate or not.