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Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present | 
| Author: Harriet A. Washington
Publisher: Doubleday
Category: Book
List Price: $27.95
Buy New: $15.65
You Save: $12.30 (44%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  35 reviews
Sales Rank: 127019
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.8
ISBN: 0385509936
Dewey Decimal Number: 174.28
EAN: 9780385509930
ASIN: 0385509936
Publication Date: January 9, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: *New Book From Independent Bookstore With Many Best Of Awards During Past 25 Years. We recommend EXPEDITED Shipping option selection for 2 to 6 business day delivery time ; as STANDARD media mail i
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Product Description
From the era of slavery to the present day, the first full history of black America’s shocking mistreatment as unwilling and unwitting experimental subjects at the hands of the medical establishment.
Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge—a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave-robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the twentieth century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism was used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks, and the view that they were biologically inferior, oversexed, and unfit for adult responsibilities. Shocking new details about the government’s notorious Tuskegee experiment are revealed, as are similar, less-well-known medical atrocities conducted by the government, the armed forces, prisons, and private institutions.
The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit. At last, it provides the fullest possible context for comprehending the behavioral fallout that has caused black Americans to view researchers—and indeed the whole medical establishment—with such deep distrust. No one concerned with issues of public health and racial justice can afford not to read Medical Apartheid, a masterful book that will stir up both controversy and long-needed debate.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 30 more reviews...
Presumed Consent - De Corpe Gettin' de Shaft - Grave Robbing! June 30, 2008
"Harvard Medical School was move from Cambridge College to Boston in order to be in closed proximity to poor colored people. This gave them access to a huge supply of poor and powerless experimental subjects."
So now I understand why all the teaching hospitals are generally in poor black neighborhoods. By locating these areas, medical staff have a unlimited supply of people to use as guinea pigs.
I thought this book was fascinating, and I would absolutely recommend. However, she contradicts herself quite often. She is telling us about all the experimentation and abuse of black Americans and their African slave ancestors. She even said something to the effect that the experimentation and abuse doesn't occur anymore. Yet she discuss several relatively recent experiments and clinical trials. So it is like she giving me the a fantastic dinner and telling me it's poison, but then setting a plate before me to eat.
I find Ms. Washington to be quite contradictory and annoying at times. The following made me say huh:
"I am in no way suggesting that this predominance of black body parts was deliberately engineered, but the confluence of presumed consent statues and the appearance of black homicide victims on coroner's tables explains why their organs and tissue dominates body part scandals." She annoys me. Why is she stating a fact, then backing down.
This is what she said in the previous paragraph to the statement above::
"Legal bias also exist in the form of presumed consent statutes, which were enacted in the 1980s to increased the number of organs donated for transplantation and research via various presumed consent statutes, which presumed that the descendent would want to donate his body parts."
Oh hell naw, if I ain't signing nothin', I aint donating squat. I have told my family I am not donating nada. They know. So how can the government presume anything. This is fraud. This medical apartheid.
Ms. Washington continues with "Many blacks do not wish to donate their bodies or body parts. Only 5 percent of Black Americans surveyed by DePaul law professor Michele Goodwin considered presumed consent a legitimate source of body parts. Eighty six percent of blacks she surveyed thought presumed consent should be illegal." It is blacks who organs and tissue are most likely to be appropriated via presumed consent by coroners after autopsy."
"There is no such entity as a crack baby. - Washington
"Birth control & abortion are turning out to be a matter of Eugenics steps. But if they had been advanced for eugenic reason, that would have retarded or stopped the acceptance." - Frederick Osborne, a Population Control Founder.
I give this book a five star, even with Ms. Washington's back peddling. I absolutely recommend this fascinating book. I would encourage everyone to familiarize themselves with term "presumed consent." This means that doctors can confiscate your organs immediately after death without your consent before death or the consent of your family after death. This sophisticated grave robbing. Please visit my book blog for June with your review of the book and review thread "De Corpse Getting de Shaft.
There was a lot of pain and ugliness in this book. Those poor slave women being tortured and brutalized could have been me, had I been born during that time. My family could have prayed that I would die in the summer. So my body would discompose quickly so that it would me it worthless for the grave robbers.
I encourage all to read this book, but most especially, my people.
It's always useful to be reminded... May 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Although I would like to think that I couldn't be tempted (as a medical researcher) to break the rules and to impair human dignity, it was a very disturbing eye-opener to read this book! It made me remember a few events in my medical education when I saw my teachers cross the line, not as dramatically as most of what Washington portrays, but nevertheless the start of the slippery slope, and I know the temptations to "cut corners" in pursuing your goal of completing your research project. Once you give in to that, much worse can follow. I agree with other reviewers that this book has rendered a great service and should be required reading.
Medical Apartheid May 18, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An incredible scholarly work that exposes a virtually untold story in American history. Rich with detail, compelling ,,, and shocking.
are there photos in this book? May 16, 2008
Can anyone tell me if there are photos in this book? graphic images? how many? I'd like to get this book for my high school class during black history month, but I'm concerned it may be too graphic. Thank you...sorry to post in the comment section but I can't find any info.
Accurate, thorough, shocking. May 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It is clear from the thorough treatment of the subject, the suprisingly constructive conclusion, and the rich, powerful prose of Medical Apartheid that Harriet Washington is a genius. For dealing with such controversial and emotionally charged issues her tone is far more expository than accusatory, and she masterfully explains the history that has led our country to its current state of inequality. Her message is hopeful and clearly summarized. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in inequalities in medical treatment in the United States.
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