Medical Apartheid
Books | Medical / History
4.6
(190)
Harriet A. Washington
National Book Critics Circle Award Winner (Nonfiction) PEN/Oakland Award Winner BCALA Nonfiction Award Winner Gustavus Meyers Award Winner From the era of slavery to the present day, the first full history of black America's shocking mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects at the hands of the medical establishment. Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge--a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the government's notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions. The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchers--and indeed the whole medical establishment--with such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid, a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.
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Author
Harriet A. Washington
Pages
501
Publisher
Harlem Moon
Published Date
2006
ISBN
076791547X 9780767915472
Community ReviewsSee all
"Most of us have heard about the notorious Tuskegee experiment, in which African American men were duped into letting doctors study the progression of their untreated syphilis . However, medical researcher Harriet Washington carefully documents how the callous use of black bodies both living and dead as research subjects goes all the way back to slavery times, and continues today in research on prisoners, institutionalized children, and Africans.<br/><br/>As with several other books we've read for the African AMerican Literature discussion group, this is a long and at times harrowing litany of atrocities. Some questions Washington raises: does the history of medical mistreatment explain why African Americans have such disparate health outcomes from other Americans? Or is health care discrimination still going on?<br/><br/>Getting subjects for medical experiments is always difficult, and frequently involves either coercion, or financial compensation. But is it ethical to persuade poor people to undergo medical tests because they need the money? And if not, how should medical research be conducted?<br/><br/>Are African Americans overall more distrustful of medical science than other groups? If so how do we fix this? Should this be covered in medical education?<br/><br/>What can or should the medical establishment do to correct or atone for these past mistakes and abuses? Do individual medical schools, clinics or medical journals bear any responsibility?"
Lesley Williams
"I’m quite disappointed in this read. At first, I was really impressed by the level of research and the anecdotes that Washington had managed to pull together, but sadly, at around the 50% mark, a statement snagged my attention that I fear cast doubt on the overall credibility of the work. Washington, in a book whose central thesis is that people deserve bodily autonomy regardless of race, asserts that Kevorkian was “preying” upon the medically disabled. Her opinions on elective medical euthanasia while suffering from ALS being predatory seem incongruous with that theme. These people were of sound mind, but suffering profoundly. They, too, deserve bodily autonomy.
Later in the book, she says that the dark skinned South Asian is considered white, while a light skinned North African is not. That is, not only inaccurate, but incredibly racist. I don’t believe I need to really break that down for anyone.
Washington’s work well and truly falls apart when she enters the modern era, post civil rights movement. She fails to give more than a passing mention of how closely intertwined race and class are, and how the medical community, since no longer can outright use one race as guinea pigs, target the working poor, universally. To fail to acknowledge that fact makes Medical Apartheid feel an incredibly dishonest work. She also focuses heavily on South Africa, which, in a book about American medical experimentation, feels out of place. If she brought South Africa into the conversation, then she cannot neglect to mention Japanese Unit 731, or the Israeli political prisoner medical torture of Palestinians, or predatory vaccine trials in Latin America. In focusing so heavily on one that’s only tangentially related to America, she makes it seem like the others are either deserved or not worth mentioning.
The way Washington frames the AIDs crisis in the eighties also gave me pause. She asserts that white gays were given free access to AZT, while it was denied to black heterosex"
Carolyn Valenta
"The history in this book is so shocking and thought-provoking, and now that we are in the middle of COVID-19, I would love to see an updated version dealing with the inequality around this pandemic."
Ricki Marking-Camuto
"Every person of color should have this book on their list of reading material!"
L B
Latonya Bell