The researches also noted: "When family or friends were consulted, 83 percent reinforced the patients' concern about medical experimentation."

In order to try and overcome African Americans fear of participating in medical experiments, the researchers advocate forming a "recruitment triangle" that includes family members as well as the patient and his or her primary doctors and other medical personnel.

The show of Tuskegee also inhibits African Americans from becoming more actively involved in non-experimental programs, such as bone-marrow transplants that would save thousands of lives.

Between 1998 and 1996, more than 4,400 bone marrow transplants from unrelated donors were performed, but fewer than 3 percent involved Black patients. One reason was because only 7 percent of the volunteers in the National Marrow Donor Program are African American.

These small numbers are particularly serious because while Whites can find a close enough match 70 percent of the time. African Americans only have a 42 percent chance of finding a matching donor.

According to Robert Pinderhughes, the spokes-person for the marrow donor program, the specter of Tuskegee lurks as an impediment. He believes that every time a Black patient has a bad experience in a hospital, it reinforces fears of Tuskegee.

One optimistic sign is that after the National Marrow Donor Program launched a recruitment campaign in 1993, the Black match rate almost doubled, rising from 22 percent to 42 percent in 1996.

"Were moving in the right direction, but we have a long way to go." Pinderhughes said.

-- Paul Ruffins