Medical exploitation of Black people in America goes far beyond the cells stolen from Henrietta Lacks that produced modern day miracles
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Martedì, Agosto 8, 2023
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During her treatment, a sample of her cancer cells was taken without her knowledge or consent.
Key Points:
- During her treatment, a sample of her cancer cells was taken without her knowledge or consent.
- Henrietta Lacks’ cells, known as HeLa cells, have had a profound impact on medical science since they were first taken from Lacks in 1951.
- Lacks is one of the most well-known examples of medical exploitation on a Black body.
Medical abuse is a part of Black history
- Medical exploitation and intentional abuse of members of the Black community is an often overlooked part of Black history.
- The Tuskegee experiment is one of the most well-known examples of medical exploitation in the Black community.
- But as revealed in medical ethicist Harriet A. Washington’s groundbreaking book “Medical Apartheid,” the medical exploitation of the Black community extended far beyond Tuskegee.
Grave robbing in Black communities
- In turn, more cadavers were needed, but the demand for cadavers far exceeded the supply.
- The solution at the time was grave robbing.
- At the turn of the 18th century, most of New York City’s dissection tables were full of Black bodies, despite members of the Black community’s accounting for only 15% of the population at the time.
Unethical experiments on the incarcerated
- From the 1950s through the 1970s, Philadelphia health officials allowed the prominent researcher Dr. Albert M. Kligman to conduct dangerous experiments on incarcerated people, most of whom were Black.
- Kligman repeatedly and purposely exposed Black men to dermatological, biochemical and pharmaceutical experiments.
- The city of Philadelphia and related institutions officially apologized in October 2022, but the apology does not remedy the lifelong scars and lingering health impacts from the experiments.
- Incarcerated individuals in Arkansas were given a cocktail of drugs, including Ivermectin, to treat COVID-19.
Why it matters
- It is also important to show how racism is still prevalent in contemporary medicine and public health.
- The study further found that nearly half of the medical students in the study believed Black people have less sensitive nerve endings.
- It’s my belief that revealing the dark history of medical racism is key to making sure that past injustices do not recur.