The Horrific Tale of Medical Apartheid

In today's democracy-infused society, it is virtually impossible to imagine that forms of inequality and bigotry still exist. It becomes thoroughly shocking therefore to learn that even in recent years, racism has been practiced to some extent through medical studies.

In 1991, a number of African American teenagers unknowingly became part of a medical research which required them to be implanted with Norplant, a tool intended for birth control. For more than a decade until 2001, a similar racist study was conducted in which HIV infected foster children became the test subjects for AIDS drugs with uncertain medical properties.

These two cases and many more have been documented by Harriet Washington, a former Harvard fellow in ethics and public health and presently a visiting scholar in DePaul Law School, in her book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans From Colonial Times to the Present. It is the only book to encompass the whole history of how African Americans since the time of slavery until modern times, have fallen prey to horrific exploitation.

In the book, Washington goes on to specifically detail cases of experimentation on African Americans. One such study was the Tuskegee experiment, probably the most widely known case, in which African Americans with syphilis were denied treatment for the sake of medical research.

While the western world looked on in horror at the racist purging and experimentation in some places in Europe during the Second World War, similar cases were and have been unknowingly unfolding on American soil. Just like in the Holocaust, medical experimentations on Black Americans in effect highlighted the perverse notion that certain races are inferior to others, particularly the white race. From the time of slavery, the distinct outward appearance of African Americans was regarded as a sign of their inferiority. It was the twisted belief of some doctors that medical experimentation was the only way to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the black race is truly different and inferior to the white race.

Other than proving inferiority, these racist medical studies have been conducted on Black Americans for the benefit of others precisely because they have been thought to be expendable. In effect African Americans once occupied a status equal to lab rats. Certain medical conclusions and breakthroughs may have come for a terrible price.

The achievements and pervading presence and influence of African Americans in present times have proven that racist beliefs truly hold no water and cannot be proven especially through scientific study. The damage has been done however, and it is largely due to these past cases of experimentation that present African Americans have become understandably distrustful of the medical world. Now, many Black Americans simply refuse to participate in perfectly innocuous but potentially helpful medical experiments.

Washington, in an attempt to bring about a positive resolution to the issue born out of truthful communication has been conducting lectures. It is hoped that at some time in the future, the fears of African Americans may be soothed.