Henrietta Lacks Research Paper

For decades, a person’s socioeconomic status or SES has affected the health care that people receive due to race and “wealth”. This problem has plagued American society because of these factors leading to many receiving inadequate health care. All of these factors for someone’s SES, has changed a lot in the health care domain that is unfair to many who are not the “ideal” and are a minority. Due to this the perception, experiences with health care waver and are different between the stages of these SES’s. No matter the status of a person they should receive the same amount of care, treatment, and closer. In the book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, the Lacks family was a poor, black family and this created a problem. Due to this issue

The American Journal of Public Health states, “SES is intimately associated with racism, which has restricted socioeconomic attainment for members of a minority group.” During the time that Deborah and her family lived, racism was even higher than records now. Due to this discrimination of color this led to the family not being told of anything going on. Stereotypes were so deeply engrained in the minds of those who were working on Deborah’s mother that they felt whether telling the family or not would not matter. The color of the family was seen as a minority nevertheless, they were almost equal in numbers, the stigma that people of color are not as intelligent or as adequate in schooling to comprehend what happens in most of life led the family to be left in the dark. Instances such as this can be seen even to this day, none of this magnitude though. Many families who are of a minority are expected to know less about many things, especially when it comes to medical care, therefor “would not understand” the situation at hand for their loved ones or even themselves while receiving the attention needed at the time. This shows the unfaltering problem within health care, that those who are within a lower SES standing are not being cared for as well and are not being told what is wrong because of a social stigma. SES should have no

The Journal of Primary Care and Community Health states, “Physicians delay diagnostic testing, prescribe more generic medications, and avoid referral to specialty care for their patients of low SES versus other patients.” With these staggering results this proves the separation and racism within the medical field. People of color and those who are not as well off, are forced to handle these poor conditions for treatment, while those who are white and with more money are more inclined to get better care and medication. This is the issue with today’s health care because it does not treat every person equally, there is a huge amount of favoritism within the