Distrust in the Medical Field Essay

Can you imagine going to the doctor and doing whatever that doctor told you was the best for you without asking questions? Well that is what patients did in the 1950s, especially African Americans, who were still being victims of racial prejudice and segregation. In this book, the author, Rebecca Skloot tells us about Henrietta Lacks, a 31 year old African American woman who was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and trusted her doctors, who took a sample of her cells without her knowledge. These cells would help in scientific discoveries that helped millions of people. Henrietta died of cancer and her family is devastated when they find out that the cells had been taken without permission, and that they were being sold for profit.

Providers possess a multiplicity of roles in today’s society. It is typical that patients trust their physicians and should feel comfortable seeing them; however, not all communities can feel this way about their providers. Iatrophobia is prominent within the African-American community, and a history of medical abuses against this community may have a link to such present-day health inequalities as shorter life spans and higher infant mortality rates than Whites.

When Henrietta was this far away from home and in a new environment, it frightened her into staying quiet and therefore, not understanding what her treatment was. Although the doctors weren’t treating her differently than other patients because of her race, she almost needed to be advised differently because she didn’t understand what was happening to her body. Skloot states, “For Henrietta, walking into Hopkins was like entering a foreign country where she didn’t speak the language…she’d never heard the words cervix or biopsy.” (pg 16) By feeling uncomfortable and unwelcomed in the hospital environment, it created a toxic cycle of African Americans stating that they are fine when something is seriously wrong with their health and are in need professional care. This fear seems to be rooted in the oppression that white doctors set on black patients because these doctors are seen to be of a higher class at the time. Proving truth behind Henrietta's fear was the unethical mindset of Richard Wesley TeLinde, who used poor patients’ tissue without telling them, believing that this was their payment of their free service. Researchers and doctors with similar mindsets to TeLinde’s is what created the power institutional racism which lead African American, like Henrietta, to have no

The story of Henrietta Lacks is definitely one of racism in regard to the taking of her cells without full permission or knowledge, but I don't think in the end race really affected her treatment. What I have read so far shows the attitude of the day back in the 50s that hospitals like Hopkins were not only put in poor black areas to treat them, but to also supply an easy inventory of possible test subjects. The case of the Tuskegee syphilis study is just one of probably many cases where the patients, usually poor, black, and illiterate, were not given the true full story of what was going to be done to them. This was simply the way things were done at the time and no one thought it was wrong or unethical. Their thinking was your getting free

Though it has been apparent that people of color have been treated as a subclass within the medical field for centuries; as was brought to light in The Tuskegee Syphilis Study, the recognition of forced hysterectomies and sterilizations of African American women in the 20th century and, to “The Negro Project” which worked to reduce the African American population through eugenics (Feagin & Bennefield, 2014). With even these three examples it is clear that the medical field has played a large role in creating both psychological and physical disadvantages and trauma for minority groups in America. Yet, it seems to be a subject that many professionals refuse to address. A meta-analysis conducted by Mayberry, Mili and Ofili found that,

In between the facts and reports, Rebecca Skloot let us have a glimpse into Henrietta life. She is an African-American woman living with her husband and five children in Baltimore, Maryland. The Lack’s family is financially unstable since Henrietta have to sought help from a charity hospital. The family background brought up to another main point which is race and social class. People come to John Hopkins Hospital to seek for free medication and treatment therefore they are treated differently, “Like many doctors of his era, TeLinde often used patients from the public wards for research, usually without their knowledge. Many scientists believed that since patients were treated for free in the public wards, it was fair to use them as research subjects as a form of payment” (Skloot, 2010). It is also no surprise that the hospital and doctors treated Henrietta different because she is the black women. Back in 1951 segregation between black and white was still an ongoing problem. This tragic story would never happen if Henrietta was a middle class, white woman. They would have asked for her consent before using her cells for research. There is also studies that shows black patients receive different treatment and medication compared to white

The entire book is centered around the story of a middle-aged Negro woman named Henrietta Lacks who was the victim of malpractice. The book states, “But first - though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor - Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta’s cervix” (Skloot 33). Henrietta had been in the hospital to get treatment for cervical cancer. Neither Henrietta nor her family was informed of what had happened during the treatment. The doctor responsible for the tissue collection had also taken samples from other cervical cancer patients without their knowledge. During Henrietta's time period medical malpractice was not uncommon. People would hear rumors about doctors unlawfully practicing medicine on patients. A segment from the book says, “‘Back then they did things,’ Sonny said. ‘Especially to black folks. John Hopkins was known for experimentin on black folks. They’d snatch em off the street…’” (Skloot 165). This created a mistrust between doctor and patient. People soon grew to fear doctors. They did not want to go to doctors anymore for fear of being experimented on or becoming a victim of malpractice. The people that did go to doctors mostly blindly trusted them. Patients would not ask questions about what was happening in their treatment or what a doctor was doing. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks states, “Doctors knew best, and most patients didn’t question that” (Skloot 63). This created an environment where malpractice was easily accomplished because patients assumed that doctors were doing the right thing for their health. There were not many laws expressing what a doctor could and could not do. This practically meant that a doctor could do anything they desired. More laws detailing what doctors

Ethical concerns always arise when conducting researches that involve participation of human beings. These concerns pertain to such values as privacy, autonomy, bodily integrity, and dignity, along with legal matters such as confidentiality, patient safety, and informed consent (Kamp, M., B., 2006). After reading about Henrietta Lacks (HeLa cells), substantial amount of ethical issues were executed. Race was a big issue in 1950’s, were doctors are not worried about African American and indigents rights back then. It is uncommon for any physicians to precede a research without their consent or knowledge. Although, looking back from today, taking her cells without informed consent is a clear sign of violating patient’s rights. Thus, Henrietta

Researches and doctors violated informed consent requirement they have to say to their patients. The Lacks family never knew what happened to their mother till years later. The book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot the doctors and researchers took Henrietta’s cells without anyone's knowledge. The doctors took away her right of saying no because they didn't want to hear it. Henrietta’s daughter got talked into being tested for cancer, if though there wasn't a test for that. They took advantage of their patients to do research. According to Skloot Deborah said, “she’d heard that stories about Hopkins snatching black people for research, and sh read and article in Jet about the Tuskegee study that suggested doctors might

Without the patient’s’ knowledge, doctors would use them for research and “many scientists believed that since patients were treated for free in the public wards, it was fair to use them as research subjects as a form of payment” (30). While Henrietta was being operated on, a doctor “picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta's cervix: one from her tumor, and one from the healthy cervical tissue nearby. Then he placed the samples in a glass dish” (33). This sample would change the course of medical history and save thousands of lives. These doctors performed other tasks and felt no remorse for his patients. They would give no information to their patients and “repeated this process with about a dozen other cancer patients” (128). One doctor “told them he was testing their immune systems; he said nothing about injecting them with someone else's malignant cells”, and these innocent people had no idea what was being put in them (128). While the public started to question the morals of the doctors who were non-consensually performing tasks on their subjects, the doctors countered their remarks by asking "if the whole profession is doing it, how can you call it 'unprofessional conduct'?" (134). Unfortunately, there were consequences and repercussions of taking the cells of Henrietta and countless others. The Lacks

Based upon the rule of utilitarianism, I argue that repeated historical demonstrations of racial discriminatory practices in medicine leads us to a conclusion racially based oversight committees should presided over patients whose care has been historically documented as ethically heinous acts of racial mistreatment. In cases like the Tuskegee experiment and Drapetomania will be significant in elucidating the necessity of racial oversight.

A statement in an unsigned article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, gives the prejudicial idea: “‘Virtue in the Negro race is like angels’ visits—few and far between”’ (Brandt 21). Nearly seventy years after Lincoln abolished slavery in the United States, racism and prejudice still flowed through the veins of many Americans and their views corrupted medical research studies with bribery, prejudice, and flagrant disregard for ethics, such as the Tuskegee Syphilis case in 1932. This blatant disrespect for African-American life left only seventy-four men alive of the three hundred and ninety-nine men who participated in the study. These men were chosen as

The article I read talked about medical students that bring racial prejudices with them to medical school and that will go with them throughout their career. It also said that students were given a video to view of two different people that had identical symptoms of angina and how they thought the black woman was less severe than the white man.

In addition, racism is a reason for choosing a biology career. There are still some hospitals in different parts of the world where they value and cheat people based on their race, ethnicity, and religion. They snatch more money from people of color and who are impoverished. How they snatch more money from them? By authorizing inappropriate medical tests and doing medical experiments on them and capture as much money as they can. These poverty-stricken people don’t understand which tests are vital and which are not, hence these racist doctors take benefit of them. When I witness such type of activities happening around me it always occurred to me how I could avoid these things from happening thereupon, I forethought of being a doctor and open

There are many things that influence a patient’s behavior while they are in the medical office. Some of those things are heredity, culture, and environment. Heredity is the behaviors that one inherits from their parents genetically. As for the culture, these are the beliefs a person is brought up with. This is what they may see or feel is appropriate and this of course will be different from one person to the next, especially those of different cultural backgrounds. One’s environment will play a role in how they react in a clinical setting. For instance, a person who is used to having the best of everything will expect nothing but perfection from the health care provider and their staff; whereas someone who may be visiting a clinic or hospital for the first time in their lives may feel like they are getting the best treatment regardless of how well the staff is performing.