Black History Month: "Medical Apartheid"

As we conclude Black History Month this week, I encourage my friends in the medical profession to take a different route in exploring and reflecting on the African-American experience in the United States. 

Every February we are reminded of King, Parks, and countless other Black Americans who have contributed to a country that didn't always love them, and still has a complicated relationship with 14 percent of its population.  Part of that "complicated" and tragic history involves medicine and medical ethics (or lack thereof).  If you really want to take a deep dive into this chapter of Black History, I challenge you to read "Medical Apartheid" by Harriet Washington.  This book goes well beyond the usual stories of the Tuskegee syphilis experiments and Dr. Marion Sims to chronicle the 300+ year history of how American medicine experimented on the Black body, up through the late 1980's. This outrageous behavior was not only "OK," it was encouraged in the medical community and American society. 

Harriett Washington's book is a tome. Yet, it's not a rant, nor does it encourage Black people or other Americans to hate America in general or medicine in particular. Instead, Ms. Washington hopes for Black people to now bask in the abundance of American medicine.  However, she states there must be an acknowledgement and apology for the sins of the past in order for today's Black Americans to benefit from the fruits of modern American medicine. "Medical Apartheid" is Exhibit A in why Black Americans, who were disproportionately ravaged by COVID, had the lowest acceptance rate of the vaccines.  I wrote about this conundrum in the BMJ Medical Ethics Blog here.  

Any serious student of history knows that the past can inform our future.  Medical Apartheid is a cautionary text for anyone who has blind trust in the goodness of medicine and doctors. Today, in the debate over transgender treatments for minors, how often do we see news articles and stories where well-founded concerns are casually dismissed by the following boiler plate language: "Yet, transgender care for children has been endorsed by the following medical groups..."   Apparently, "the doctors" have decided transgender care is "OK" for kids, so no need to worry.  Just ask Black people how unquestioned societal faith in medicine -- including medical ethics -- worked out.  Ask victims of medical errors how faith in the ethical standards of medicine has worked out.  Ditto with victims of the Holocaust. Indeed, the pages of medical history are full of ethically challenged physicians who did outrageously stupid things. 

Has our current set of doctors found a new group of victims play with?  Is the modern day version of Dr. Marion Sims experimenting right now on vulnerable children in a hospital near you?   And where are the medical ethicists in this mess?  What is wrong with medicine, and America in general? 

Black History is American History.  It's not just important for Black people to learn this history, but for all Americans to appreciate and learn from these stories. These tales have much to teach us, including how we should and should not conduct ourselves going forward. 

Sincerely,

- Doug

Doug Wojcieszak, MA, MS
President
Sorry Works!, a 501c3 non-profit
618-559-8168 (direct dial)