Diana Lorena Figueroa

Mr. Kelly
Class 3A
Oct 28, 2015
Draft #2
Miss Evers Boys.
Have you heard about human experimentation? This is when researchers use a person as
experiment subject. The researches make different procedures with a specific purpose. This essay
shows us some examples of human experimentation which happened here in the USA and
abroad.
Miss Evers Boys is a movie based on the Tuskegee Study of Untreated Blacks with
Syphilis. It was launched by the federal government in 1932 at Tuskegee, Alabama. The purpose
of this study was learning how syphilis kills people, from infection to death. The patients thought
they were receiving treatment for their disease, but it was not true, they were experimental
subjects. This movie shows the history behind this study from the perspective of Nurse Eunice
Evers, who was involved on the study from the beginning. She was well aware of the lack of
treatment being offered, but she felt that her role was to console the patients and try to take care
of them in some way. The movie takes place in two settings, the first one, when the movie
begins, at a courtroom in 1972; and the second one, where the story took place, at Tuskegee,
Alabama in 1932. This movie receives the name because a dancer and three musicians named
their act for her Miss Evers Boys- and all of them had the disease.
We can connect the Tuskegee Study with the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
because it is a clear example of racism and segregation based on the fact that Henrietta Lacks

and Miss Evers Boys were black people, who were selected by white doctors as guinea pigs
just because at that time black people were considered an inferior race. If we add the fact that
black people were usually poor, uneducated and didnt know about terms such as informed
consent or human rights, that makes them a vulnerable population. We can also relate this
study with all examples exposed in the lecture Human Guinea Pigs: Involuntary Medical
Experimentation- A Global Perspective because those cases, which happened around the world
(USA, China, Germany), show us how many people around the world have been used as
experiment subjects without consent and, sometimes, in inhumane conditions because someone
else, with some kind of power, thinks that is the only way to find certain results for the benefit of
specific population.
I think that is a movie easy to understand, and is an excellent introduction if someone is
interested on this topic. It is very clear in the facts, and the characters make the movie very
interesting and entertaining. On the other hand, if we talk about the facts, this movie shows us
how people with power play with the life and welfare of vulnerable people, and unfortunately its
something that happens every day in very different contexts. This is a difficult topic to talk about
because, it isnt something that happens every day to everyone and there are people who dont
want to recognize it, but its something that is real and can happen to anyone. I dont pretend to
change the world and end up human experimentation, or scare people with horror stories. I just
want give knowledge about this topic; create awareness about a situation that is part of our
world; and, if is possible, make the reader feel more interested about that kind of situations.