ipl-logo

Harriet Washington Marble Wonders Summary

590 Words3 Pages

Profitable Wonders is a well-written article by Harriet Washington that depicts and analyzes one the foundations of western medicine. The main point of this article was to shed light on the inhumane experiments by white doctors and slave owners on their slaves and how to show ethically wrong this practice was. The author introduced her thesis by telling the story of John Brown and the doctor who experimented on him. From this, she opened her discussion by providing more gruesome stories of experimentation on black slaves and the integrated racism in the start of western medicine. To get her point across, Harriet Washington used memoirs and books by the people who experienced the experiments in any way to get her point across. She includes …show more content…

Sims has been praised as the “father of American gynecology”, many not knowing the ways he got that title. In the late 19th century, many women were having infections, and the way Sims went around trying to solve the problem was by using enslaved black women as his source to find a cure. He found the results he wanted to find, but at the expense of African women’s humanity. First of all, this is obvious epistemic violence. Looking at the entire message of the article, one of the main sayings was that white doctors considered African slaves to not have the same sense of pain white people do, fundamentally denying their humanity. Looking at the James Brown case, he withstood a massive amount of torture until he cracked and escaped. His doctor obviously did not consider Brown a human and wanted to hurt him for profit. Correspondingly, if one were to look at the differences between African patients and white patients, the difference is immense. Whites were treated how every patient gets treated in the modern day. They were legally bound to safe procedures and had a right to exit the experiment if they desired. African slaves, knowing they were not American citizens were not legally bound to anything and were treated like animals. Many times, white doctors experimented on African slaves, not for health reasons, but for fame and profit. These experiments lead to many

Show More
Related

Summary Of The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

171 Words | 1 Pages

In the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, the author demonstrates the harsh realities that many African Americans faced in the medical and scientific field during the mid 20th century. The author shows the unjust practices of this time period through interviews with the Lacks family and medical professionals. These harsh realities are proven when Skloot talks to Henrietta’s family. Henrietta’s husband, Day, explains how they took samples from Henrietta’s body without consent when Skloot writes, “Day clenched his remaining three teeth. "I didn't sign no papers," he said.

Read More

Henrietta Lacks Medical Treatment

726 Words | 3 Pages

During the 1950’s African American’s had a difficult time living in a world where they were seen to be lesser of a human being than what they were. They were treated differently in normal everyday lives as well as in the medical world. Henrietta Lacks was a woman who was greatly affected by this divide between whites and African-Americans. Because of the color of her skin, I believe she was not treated to the best of the doctor’s ability, and instead just used for indirect experimentation. In Rebecca Skloot’s novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, she gives examples of how African-Americans were treated differently, a few of those include; the conditions of John Hopkins, the African-American medical experiments, and Hector Henry.

Read More

Was The Unconsented Research On Henrietta Lacks Lawful?

1397 Words | 6 Pages

Although she relocated in her twenties to the north she still experienced racial disparity specifically through her medical experience. John Hopkins was a hospital with a unique mission, in retrospect to the time in which it was founded, this mission is simply put by a scholarly article on the subject, “to provide care to the sick and indigent ‘without regard to sex, age, or color’”. With the socio economic status and race of Henrietta this hospital was one of the least segregated and most willing to provide car for Henrietta and people like her. Despite this seemingly positive improvement in her story, what went on in the hospital and specifically what took place with the story of Henrietta lacks was not right or ethical. Henrietta and many others were in fact segregated into color wards, although the segregation took place she received the standard care of that time.

Read More

Lacks By Henrietta Lacks Essay Questions

853 Words | 4 Pages

Multiple times throughout the book it was mentioned that Henrietta’s biopsy took place 60 years ago and a lot of changes have been made to science and ethics. This book did a good job bringing up ethics in science and scientific achievements that have been made over the years, but in some ways it was sensationalized to get the family the recognition they feel they deserved. As a poor, black family, the Lacks’ were discriminated against. Even the medical treatments they received were often not the best treatments offered and they were often experimented on. Having the fear of being mistreated and used for experimentation made the Lacks’ even more upset about Henrietta’s death.

Read More

Thesis For The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

1514 Words | 7 Pages

When doing research like the author of this book did, it is easy to get caught up in all of the information and forget it is from 70 years ago. What Henrietta’s doctors did to her is unthinkable now, but it didn’t happen in 2023, it happened in 1951, and back then the laws and acceptable practices were different. That does not excuse behavior, but it is still important to keep in mind. V. Further reading/ Additional Information 1.

Read More

Removing Henrietta Lacks

638 Words | 3 Pages

Removing Henrietta’s cells without her consent seems to be a very rare scenario and this can tell how the medical community mistreats the Black Americans. A woman of black America origin, Rebecca Skloot managed to surface other different stories of maltreatment directed to the African American community. Blacks in America were taken as people with unequal rights even in a situation like this that talked about right to life. She explained horrific experiences on experimentation of African Americans, stories that were enhanced by fear seen in Henrietta’s relatives refusing to visit hospitals even for necessary treatment. In this regard, the paper will give a response to the immortal life of Henrietta Lacks.

Read More

Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks

774 Words | 4 Pages

Statistically, African American women in the United States suffer from complications or death 243 percent more than white women during maternity. This is a common occurrence that many women and children face, but shouldn’t have too. Rebecca Skloots book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, is an example of the inequality shown to African-American women in the medical world. Specifically, the unequal medical care Henrietta Lacks received, which many other black women experienced. In her book, Skloot suggests that African-American women suffer from psychological effects after receiving unequal medical care, do not receive equal medical treatment during maternity, and are more likely to die from maternal complications.

Read More

The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks By Rebecca Skloot

965 Words | 4 Pages

Peter Strople once said, “Legacy is not something one leaves to people, it's something one leaves in people.” Henrietta Lacks’ legacy is her cells and how they helped hundreds of people. Henrieta Lacks is an African American woman who died from cervical cancer and her cancerous cells were taken from her without her consent. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot expresses the central issues of ethics and race through various literary devices. Henrietta’s story highlights the systemic racism and exploitation that has occurred in the medical field.

Read More

How Did J. Marion Sims Contribute To The Mistrust Of The Medical Community?

490 Words | 2 Pages

One last community that has historically been exploited for medical research and experiences mistrust towards the medical community is black individuals. Throughout the 19th century, slavery was rampant in the United States and while black individuals were exploited for labor they were also exploited for medical research. One man in particular, J. Marion Sims, specifically exploited black enslaved women to further his gynecological research. Enslaved women were the choice of study for Sims because they were socially seen as inferior at the time and their fertility was of great importance to the slave owners. In one case study, a woman named Mary had concerns that she was not conceiving and was simply told that uterine diseases were just common among black women.

Read More

Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks Analysis

1591 Words | 7 Pages

As a woman of colour receiving healthcare in segregated America, Henrietta Lacks is biopsied without her knowledge and consent. Lacks’ white male doctors, TeLinde and Wharton, steal samples of Henrietta’s although “no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting samples or asked if she wanted to be a donor” (Skloot 33). Lacks’ theft of biological identity exposes the audience to the overall conflict of the lack of informed consent throughout the memoir. During this period, it is common for rich white men to exploit poor black people, specifically black women, for the enrichment of so-called ‘white medicine’. Henrietta’s doctors, TeLinde and Wharton, symbolize the sexist and racist role of doctors in keeping America segregated, by “[experimenting] on the sick bodies of women of colour … to heal white women” (Owens 111), for the betterment of one race and the sacrifice of

Read More

Slavery In Lewis Clark's Plantation System

480 Words | 2 Pages

”(Bristol) Using African slaves to work the plantations is a necessity for the colony’s economic thrive, yet there are ethical obstacles that arise when considering the type of labor and treatment these people

Read More

World History Dbq

832 Words | 4 Pages

Europeans then resorted to the use of African people as slaves. Overall, African slaves were much better for working in the fields than Europeans or Native Americans. They were immune to many European diseases, had experience with farming, and were agricultural experts. Although they were great workers, doing back-breaking tasks day after day, they were given no pay, and no rights. Slaves were thought of only as property, and were beaten by their owners.

Read More

Frederick Douglass Rebunk The Myth Of Slavery

814 Words | 4 Pages

In the 1700-1800’s, the use of African American slaves for backbreaking, unpaid work was at its prime. Despite the terrible conditions that slaves were forced to deal with, slave owners managed to convince themselves and others that it was not the abhorrent work it was thought to be. However, in the mid-1800’s, Northern and southern Americans were becoming more aware of the trauma that slaves were facing in the South. Soon, an abolitionist group began in protest, but still people doubted and questioned it.

Read More

An Essay On What Camp Auschwitz Was Inhumane

652 Words | 3 Pages

From being tortured, starved, beaten, or experimented on, to being quickly executed if you weren't fit for slave labor. Their doctors checked you to see whether

Read More

Racial Inequality Research Paper

657 Words | 3 Pages

African people were enslaved by the millions and were used as tools of labor, and weren’t even regarded as humans,

Read More

More about Harriet Washington Marble Wonders Summary

Related Topics

Open Document