A consistent critique of the medical field both historically and presently is the frequent presence of racial and gender discrimination towards patients. More specifically, medicine’s treatment of black patients revolved around treating them as mere objects for research, rather than as people. Over time, this maltreatment has developed into physicians often ignoring the opinions of women and patients of color. While the phenomenon of racial and gender discrimination in medicine has received more attention in recent years, a solution to the issue is still unresolved. In the poem, “1944”, Lucille Clifton depicts her life story following her diagnosis with breast cancer. Throughout the piece, Clifton repeatedly references “coldness” and the “winter” …show more content…
Moreover, referencing “breast”, which is anatomically female, and “dark skin”, which likely refers to someone who is black, reveals the audience to likely be other black women, evidencing the underlying meaning behind the piece. Considering the audience, the lines, “you have your own story/you know about the fears/the tears/the scar of disbelief” likely refers to a specific aspect of the common story shared by black women that Clifton is referencing. While the sadness and disbelief Clifton references could pertain to shock after receiving a devastating diagnosis, the choice to use the word “scar” implies a much deeper wound that has healed, but still leaves a trace. The sadness associated with the diagnosis of a condition and/or disease often dissipates once it has been cured, however, pain associated with maltreatment and discrimination in medicine has consistently shown to leave a lasting impact on …show more content…
Continuing on, Clifton states, “to be born with breasts/you know how dangerous it is/ to wear dark skin”. Considering the earlier mention of the word “scar”, coupled with lines describing a black woman, it implies that the danger that has resulted in a metaphorical scar is a result of these identities. Furthermore, Clifton chooses to reference her womanhood as inherent with the word “born,” whereas she references her race as a choice with the word “wear.” Reflecting on her breast cancer diagnoses, her word choice reveals that her diagnosis is natural as she was born with breasts and the disease is an inherent danger associated with that. However, the treatment she receives as a black patient is a choice made by others, more specifically in this context, a choice made by medical professionals. Near the end of the poem, Clifton states, “i was leaving my fifty-eighth year/when i woke into the winter/of a cold and mortal body”. The first line of this stanza is a repeat of the beginning line of the entire poem when Clifton references her
Mildred Day and Malitta Jensen had a problem. Often times amazing things can happen when people can find a solution to a problem. These homemakers were leaders of a Campfire Girls group. They needed the girls to make something that they could sell to raise funds for activities. The year was 1939 and these two busy ladies came up with Rice Krispie treats. They have truly become a world wide treat.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by: Rebecca Skloot has a lot of themes, but one that is most relevant in my opinion is the racial politics of medicine. Throughout the chapters, there were examples of how Henrietta, being African American, prevented her from receiving the same treatment as the white woman sitting right next to her in the waiting room. The story begins with Henrietta going to Johns Hopkins Hospital and asking a physician to check a “knot on her womb.” Skloot describes that Henrietta had been having pain around that area for about a year, and talked about it with her family, but did not do anything until the pains got intolerable. The doctor near her house had checked if she had syphilis, but it came back negative, and he recommended her to go to John Hopkins, a known university hospital that was the only hospital in the area that would treat African American patients during the era of Jim Crow. It was a long commute, but they had no choice. Patient records detail some of her prior history and provide readers with background knowledge: Henrietta was one of ten siblings, having six or seven years of schooling, five children of her own, and a past of declining medical treatments. The odd thing was that she did not follow up on upcoming clinic visits. The tests discovered a purple lump on the cervix about the size of a nickel. Dr. Howard Jones took a sample around the tissue and sent it to the laboratory.
The treatment of African Americans in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks demonstrates the lack of ethics in the United States health care system during the 1950s and 1960s. Under the impression that medical doctors at Johns Hopkins Hospital were solely injecting radium treatment for cervical cancer, Henrietta Lacks laid on the surgical bed. During this procedure Dr. Lawrence Wharton Jr. shaved two pieces of tissue from her vagina, one from a healthy cervical tissue and one from the cancerous tumor, without Henrietta’s prior knowledge. After recovering from her surgery Henrietta exited the door marked, “Blacks Only,” the door that signified the separation between White and African-American patients. Had Henrietta been White, would the same outcomes have occurred? How badly did a country that proclaimed to be “One Nation under God” divide this very land into two separate nations? The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks truly exhibits the racial disparity in the health care system.
Rebecca Skloot’s novel, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, depicts the violation of medical ethics from the patient and researcher perspectives specifically when race, poverty, and lack of medical education are factors. The novel takes place in the southern United States in 1951. Henrietta Lacks is born in a poor rural town, Clover, but eventually moves to urban Turner Station. She was diagnosed and treated for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins hospital where cells was unknowingly taken from her and used for scientific research. Rebecca Skloot describes this when she writes, “But first—though no one had told Henrietta that TeLinde was collecting sample or asked she wanted to be a donor—Wharton picked up a sharp knife and shaved two dime-sized pieces of tissue from Henrietta's cervix: one from her tumor, and one from the healthy cervical tissue nearby. Then he placed the samples in a glass dish” (33). The simple act of taking cells, which the physicians did not even think twice about, caused decades
In the book Medical Apartheid, written by Harriet A Washington, the author focuses on the hidden, dark history of American experimentations done on African Americans during slavery times to more present days. Washington’s main purpose of the book is to educate readers about the abusive, deep history of experimentations done on African Americans and to explain why African Americans mistrust American medicine so much and are unwilling to participate in any research or screenings. Although Washington represents many specific cases of abusive experimental evidence—in order to reveal why African Americans mistrust American medicine today—her main arguments were that these experiments were done without consent, that physicians and scientists were
An African-American woman, Henrietta Lacks lived in Virginia, where she grew tobacco (www.smithsonianmag.com). At the age of thirty, she developed cancer. She had a husband and five children, whom she left orphaned when she died at thirty-one (www.esciencecentral.org). She received aggressive treatment, for that time, at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland, which was one of the only hospitals willing to accept African-American patients. While undergoing treatments, a physician removed a small tissue sample of a tumor and sent it for testing, without her knowledge. It was not that uncommon for things such as that to occur back then. While she may have signed and acknowledged her treatments, the removal of that tissue was not part of it. Once a sample had been removed from a patient, whether by surgery or biopsy, it was no longer considered to belong to the patient, and could be used and...
As Rebecca Scoot transport her readers in her narrative of accounts of the Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks, she delicately uncovers injustice not within one family but within a system. As she focuses in giving a voice to the Lacks, she also highlights the strength and leadership of the family matriarch of Henrietta Lacks and her cell know as HELA. Envisioning Mrs. Lacks and her family trajectory it exposes discrimination and bias on a much large scale than poorly uneducated oppress Negro or African American during 1950’s. The life of Henrietta and her family’s situation had moderate similarities of another book, The Isis Paper. The Isis Papers the keys to the Colors, by Dr. Frances Cress Welsing’s, (March 18, 1935- January 2, 2016.) In
Billy Graham once said, "The one badge of Christian discipleship is not orthodoxy but love." By this definition, June Callwood, a social activist and journalist, displays true discipleship through her work of bringing awareness to groups often discriminated against. June loved everybody equally and realized that gender, age, pecuniary possessions, or race do not define a person's worth. In other words, June Callwood is a disciple because she worked towards making a better world where the rights of every human are respected.
J. William T. Youngs. Eleanor Roosevelt A Personal and Public Life. (Pearson Longman: New York. 2006), 265pp.
It was the time of the Civil War. Violence and death was consuming the United States at an alarming rate, separation was growing more forcibly, and the nation was being torn apart by differing beliefs of what was best for the country at that time. As the the war grew bloodier, many wounded soldiers were admitted into hospitals at such great quantities that they were often overlooked and not given the optimum care that they needed, until one nurse decided to give a bit of tenderness and compassion to a soldier in a time of despair. In an excerpt from Louisa May Alcott’s book Hospital Sketches, she creates a sentimental retelling of the tragic death of a soldier she care for named John. “Death of a Soldier” is an emotionally gripping narration
Lucille Clifton’s experiences as an African-American living in a town inhabited by mostly Caucasians affected her decisions and goals in life. Growing up in a world filled with racism and gender discrimination, Clifton challenged and overcame stereotypes about both blacks and women. Despite her early struggles, Clifton writes about her problems as she endeavors living to the fullest extent. As a child, Clifton remained thankful for her parents “gifts of poetry and storytelling” (Lupton 18). These experiences as an African-American living in an impoverished environment along with a lasting love for her community and family helped Clifton grow as a person and poet. Therefore, she gained popularity for portraying African-American youth and family life in her works. Overcoming all of her struggles was most likely the hardest thing to accomplish, and reflecting on them through poetry came naturally.
African American’s have faced a great deal of harsh and cruel treatment throughout our society. From being stripped from their homeland of Africa and being brought to America as slaves, African Americans have seen and been through it all. Author and renowned poet Gwendolyn Elizabeth Brooks discuses and describes many of the cruel and unfair treatment that African Americans have faced throughout our civilization. Brooks’ not only speaks on the racial prejudice of African Americans, but she also discusses the heartaches, the life, and the growth of African Americans as a people. Brooks’ poetry and stories are very similar to her own experience growing up as an African American woman.
Now under the title of “No Mercy Hospital,” fitting for the outcome of the original conflict, this institution left isolated itself from its surroundings, cutting itself off from african american patients until 1931 when, as Morrison describes, “the first colored expectant mother was [finally] allowed to give birth inside its wards and not on its steps.” Before this unexpected day, african americans were not granted the right to enter the halls of the hospital. Even the first african american doctor, who “had been dead a long time by 1931,” “had never been granted hospital privileges and only two of his patients were ever admitted to Mercy, both white.” As he worked with little assistance and acceptance, this doctor was even restricted helping his fellow man, forced to ignore family, friends, neighbors and anyone who had the same skin color as he did. Not only was the street a mark of contempt for the average african american man, woman and child, the hospital and its employees was shackled to this sadness and this imprint of bigotry. While this window to the home of Macon Dead that Morrison builds in this first chapter is short, within its two pages, it is able to shine and reveal the prejudice that has developed in the area, the victory of the caucasian americans and the defeat of the african
Through the twentieth-first century, the medical field has been progressing. When we go to hospitals, we often see the proper etiquette, diverse group of people, and a safe healthy environment. However, during the 1950’s life in a hospital was different. Hospitals did not admit patients who were a different race, color, and gender. There were different medical protocols doctors had to follow causing discrimination, segregation, and inequality.
“A pretty summer day, every member of a rural village attends a yearly drawing in which everyone's name is entered. Because of its belief in an ancient superstition in which human sacrifice ensures good crops, the community stones the "winner" of the lottery, Tess Hutchinson.” “The Lottery” by Shirley Johnson is a short story used to induce the ineffectiveness of following traditions blindly and demonstrates a subjective loss of a human being in order to ensure the survival of others. Having thought of “The Lottery” one can relate it to an ethical theory called “Utilitarianism Theory”. Utilitarianism is a consequentialist ethical theory determined on maximizing the inclusive good. This theory confronts our well being by choosing the action that maximizes utility and the one that brings happiness to the majority of people while exploiting minorities. Utilitarianism is a normative theory that judges the action by how much of pleasure or pain it brings. However, some individuals would refuse to abide by the utilitarianism’s principles by criticizing the theory on several levels ranging from violating ones right, impartial decision makers, immeasurability, ignore justice, tyranny of the majority.