Overview

Dr. Susan M. Reverby is a professor of women's and gender studies at Wellesley College and one of the foremost historians of American public health ethics. Reverby is responsible for two of the most consequential scholarly contributions in the field: her comprehensive history of the Tuskegee syphilis study, "Examining Tuskegee: The Infamous Syphilis Study and Its Legacy" (2009), and her 2010 discovery of the Guatemala syphilis experiments in the archived papers of John Charles Cutler, a PHS physician who had been involved in both the Tuskegee and Guatemala programs. In 2010, while researching Cutler's personal papers at the University of Pittsburgh archives, Reverby discovered detailed records of the Guatemala experiments (1946-1948), in which the U.S. Public Health Service deliberately infected Guatemalan prisoners, sex workers, soldiers, and patients in a mental hospital with syphilis, gonorrhea, and chancroid without their knowledge or consent. Reverby shared her findings with the U.S. government, which led to a formal apology from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to the government and people of Guatemala in October 2010. The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues subsequently investigated the experiments and published its findings as "Ethically Impossible" in 2011. Reverby's work on Tuskegee has also fundamentally shaped how scholars, ethicists, and the public understand the study's legacy, including its devastating impact on Black Americans' trust in the medical system. Her scholarship demonstrates the critical role of historical research in exposing institutional wrongdoing and advancing ethical reform.

Key Affiliations

Controversies & Concerns

Related Investigations (2)

Known Associates & Connections

Sources & Documentation

4 documented sources from official records, investigations, and reports