Racism, Research, and the Breaking of the Hippocratic Oath

2013 Racism, Research, and the Breaking of the Hippocratic Oath A statement in an unsigned article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, gives the prejudicial idea: â€Å"‘Virtue in the Negro race is like angels’ visits—few and far between†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (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†¦show more content†¦The self-interest of the white researchers brought on many studies concerning the black population. Whites never were interested in the well-being of African-Americans. They studied disease- infected black people not to cure them, but to learn how whites could avoid catching their diseases. Before emancipation, black health was looked after because slaves were considered â€Å"property of the white man† and seen as an â€Å"investment†. After the slaves were freed, their health was studied because of the fear of the white population. Stated in Beyond Consent: Seeking Justice in Research by Kahn, Mastroianni, and Sugarman, â€Å"†¦black health needs were ignored except to the extent that they were relevant to the health status of whites† (91). The white population treated African-Americans like creatures from space, not fellow human beings and only helped blacks to protect themselves from contracting â€Å"black diseases†. Manes 3 Myths about white doctors abducting black men and women in order to perform experiments on them circulated through black neighborhoods in the 1930s and warranted fear and distrust in medical physicians. In order to obtain enough men for the study, researchers had to bribe African-American men into participating. In exchange for their cooperation, the men would receive â€Å"freeShow MoreRelatedethical decision making16006 Words   |  65 PagesMoral Rules Utilitarian Theories: Doing the Most Good for the Most People Deontological Theories: Balancing Rights and Obligations Justice in Health Care Values and Health Policy Ethics of Care Ethical Problems Faced by Community Nurses: The Research Ethical Decision Making Service Learning: Discovering the Self and Developing Community Values QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER After reading this chapter, you will know the answers to the following questions: 1. What is bioethics, and how is itRead MoreManagement Course: Mba−10 General Management215330 Words   |  862 Pagesessential to increase the efï ¬ ciency of the management process.22 We discuss these principles in detail here because, although they were developed at the turn of the 20th century, they remain the bedrock on which much of recent management theory and research is based. In fact, as the â€Å"Management Insight† following this discussion suggests, modern writers such as well-known management guru Tom Peters continue to extol these principles. DIVISION OF LABOR A champion of job specialization and the division