Opelika, Ala.: Re “The Tuskegee syphilis study’s shame echoes today” (op-ed, July 25): The Tuskegee abomination wasn’t a study. To dignify it thusly is injurious, inaccurate and insulting. Educated professionals engaged in criminal behavior. They lied, they withheld available penicillin and they salved their corrupt consciences by providing uneducated and impoverished men free hot lunches, free transportation to and from the hospital and free burials.