The Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care was established in January 1999. The Bioethics Center was developed as a partial response to the apology of President William J. Clinton for the United States Public Health Service Study on Syphilis conducted at Tuskegee, in Macon County, Alabama from 1932 to 1972. The negative legacy of this study has been cited as a contributing hindrance to the full participation of African Americans and others in taking advantage of medical care and scientific research. It is the aim of the Tuskegee University National Center to transform the burden of this negative legacy. The Tuskegee University National Center for Bioethics in Research and Health Care works with local, regional, national and international communities, to address ethical and human rights issues in science, technology and health, particularly as they impact people of color.
The Center’s goals are to:
1. Promote racial and ethnic diversity in the field of bioethics and in public debates about bioethical issues
2. Conduct research and publish scholarship on bioethics and underserved populations
3. Educate students, scholars, media, and the public about bioethical issues of importance to underserved populations
4. Foster effective, respectful, and mutually beneficial community partnerships to address inequities in health and health care, to increase public education about bioethics, and to develop training programs
5. Advocate public policies that improve the health and health care of all Americans, particularly the underserved.