A GREAT deal of publicity was given in late 1971 and early 1972 to reports of unethical practices in a long-term study of so-called untreated syphilis in a group of black men in six Southern states. It was alleged that a United States Public Health Service study, also perhaps supported by certain foundations, had withheld effective treatment from these men and that many had died as a result. A cover story on human experimentation in Medical World News referred to subjects in the study as "victims" of the Tuskegee affair.1 In 1972 an ad hoc advisory panel was formed to . . .