Harriet Washington – Medical Apartheid Book Essay
QUESTION 1: Iatrophobia
“One of the most harmful contemporary legacies of this history of abusive medical experimentation is that many African Americans are wary of participating in potentially life saving medical studies. A recent study in the American Journal of Law and Medicine estimated that only 1 percent of the nearly 20 million Americans enrolled in biomedical studies are black. This reluctance, though justified, has meant that blacks often miss out on the latest treatments and breakthroughs.” – Amara Rivera
Given the History of Medical Apartheid in the U.S., African-Americans have tended to be iatrophobic. Should African-Americans continue to participate in medical research and trust their doctors today? Would Harriet Washington and Tim Wise be in support of your argument?
QUESTION 2: Ebola
Watch this Press TV video: The Debate: Ebola Man-made (pt1) (11 mins)
Based on his arguments, is Dr. Short a conspiracy theorist? Comment on the validity of Dr. Short’s arguments and examples given the arguments provided by Washington in Medical Apartheid in the Epilogue of the book and in the rest of the text. Use the relevant examples and ideas Washington uses to draw connections between medical apartheid practiced on Blacks in the U.S and Blacks in Africa from her book.
QUESTION 3: Scientific Racism and Eugenics
The "science" of eugenics proposed that human perfection could be developed through selective breeding and sterilization. It claimed to improve the genetic features of human populations based on the idea that it is possible to distinguish between superior and inferior elements of society. How has the eugenics movement played a negative role in African-American history? Will advances in technology which allow people select traits of their newborns before birth have a positive and/or negative impact