MONTGOMERY, Ala.

The infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study, a government experiment that charted the effects of the untreated disease on mostly poor and uneducated Black men, was conducted for 40 years before it was exposed and ended in 1972 amid widespread condemnation.

A number of participants in the study died of the disease, which the men spread to women and to children at birth.

But does it still take a toll on the health of new generations of Blacks? Even the experts, apparently, can't agree.

Two separate studies by Johns Hopkins University physicians took opposing sides on whether the Tuskegee experiment remains a significant factor in turning Blacks away from clinical trials at a greater rate than Whites. And both tended to contradict an extensive 2005 National Institutes of Health computer survey that found, in fact, Blacks are no different than Whites in the rate at which they take part in clinical trials when offered the chance.

Despite the different findings, researchers involved in the studies, along with others who work on minority medical issues, said more needs to be done to make sure Blacks have proper access to clinical trials as well as medical care.

In research reported earlier this year, Johns Hopkins University doctors found that Blacks were more reluctant than Whites to take part in medical studies because they fear being improperly used as guinea pigs. Their lack of participation, the authors said, inhibits efforts to develop treatments for diseases that Blacks suffer from in disproportionately large numbers.

“So long as the legacy of Tuskegee persists, African-Americans will be left out of important findings about the latest treatments for diseases,” said senior study author Dr. Neil Powe, a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine.

“There is enormous irony that without African-American subject participation in clinical trials, we are not going to have tested the best therapies we need to treat African-Americans,” Powe said.