Mistrust of the health care industry is a notable distraction for the African American woman. This disparity dates to the slavery era when researching physicians believed slaves were worthy candidates for research. Unethical research has been the impediment to fair treatment of the African American population.
Mistrust of the health care industry is a notable distraction for the African American woman. This disparity dates to the slavery era when researching physicians believed slaves were worthy candidates for research. Unethical research has been the impediment to fair treatment of the African American population.
Mistrust of the health care industry is a notable distraction for the African American woman. This disparity dates to the slavery era when researching physicians believed slaves were worthy candidates for research. Unethical research has been the impediment to fair treatment of the African American population.
Mistrust of the health care industry is a notable distraction for the African American woman from obtaining appropriate and timely medical attention. Her struggle to believe in a system that purposely throughout history has used her to experiment devices, drugs, and
processes to prove or disapprove their research is not unfounded.
This disparity dates to the slavery era when researching physicians believed slaves were worthy candidates for research because they had "...anatomical features [suited for research such as] small brains, thick skin; high tolerance for heat, sun and pain" (Williams & Johnson, 2002).
Professor of Law Dr. Vernellia R. Randall (1996) asserts "The
advances in medicine [during the nineteenth century] were legion" (Randall, 1996). Unfortunately, during this time period, and possibly continuing through current society, these rapid advances have been at the detriment of the health, and sometimes death of the poor and African American. Unethical research has been the impediment to fair treatment of the African American population. Noteworthy through documented unethical research studies of this population is that of the Tuskegee syphilis study, carried out between 1932 and 1972 (Thomas & Quinn, 1991).
However, through folklore told through generations of the
Black community, the continued mistrust surfaces often of other untold stories of how their ancestors were wrongly, and immorally mishandled (Randall, 1996). Unfortunately, from the slavery era through the authenticated administration of experimental vaccines with U.S. soldiers in 1990, health care industry personnel who are not familiar with these unscrupulous projects stand miles apart from wholly understanding how the African American approaches the system.
Dr. Randall concludes that "Understanding the extent of
the experimentation is important for understanding the basis of the distrust of African Americans" (Randall, 1996). Randall, in her research documented in the Basis of Distrust (2010), outlines the following experimental injustices using African Americans throughout history as the research subjects: Dr. McDowell practiced on slaves during the 1800s a perilous surgery of removing ovarian tumors. The smallpox vaccine was administered to hundreds of slaves, including two hundred slaves of Thomas Jefferson to test its effectiveness, and safety (Randall, 2010).
The general anesthetic ether, was tested by physician
Crawford Long, one of the first physicians to test this agent on a large proportion of slaves. Dr. Thomas Hamilton, placed slaves in an open-pit oven with only their heads upon ground, to test the determination of which medicines would allow a persons body to endure high temperatures.
Dr. Walter F. Jones tested a potential cure for typhoid
pneumonia by pouring five gallons of boiling water on the spinal column of slaves (Randall, 2010). There was suspicion by slaves that they were left to die, or were actually murdered in order for physicians to use their bodies for continued educational purposes through dissection. In addition, although never confirmed, the bodies of slaves were also exumed for medical schools (Randall, 2010).
Dr. Alexander Somervail, a Black physician, tested his
theory of how to relieve the inability to urinate on African American patients. Although Dr. Robert Jennings was ascribed for his significant role in developing the typhoid infection vaccine, it was at the wellbeing of his experimentation using free Blacks, and slaves. Dr. P.C. Spencer experimented on slaves his new, yet quite painful surgical technique to relieve the effects of excruciating pain from bladder stones.
Although Dr. Marion Sims is portrayed as a historic icon in
gynecological surgery, he purposely addicted Black women to drugs after surgery in order to restrain them after performing repetitively on these women the same surgery to perfect his surgical techniques.