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Medical Apartheid

The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present

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Medical Apartheid

Written by: Harriet A. Washington
Narrated by: Ron Butler
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About this listen

Medical Apartheid is the first and only comprehensive history of medical experimentation on African Americans. Starting with the earliest encounters between black Americans and Western medical researchers and the racist pseudoscience that resulted, it details the ways both slaves and freedmen were used in hospitals for experiments conducted without their knowledge - a tradition that continues today within some black populations. It reveals how blacks have historically been prey to grave robbing as well as unauthorized autopsies and dissections. Moving into the 20th century, it shows how the pseudoscience of eugenics and social Darwinism were used to justify experimental exploitation and shoddy medical treatment of blacks.

The product of years of prodigious research into medical journals and experimental reports long undisturbed, Medical Apartheid reveals the hidden underbelly of scientific research and makes possible, for the first time, an understanding of the roots of the African American health deficit.

©2006 Harriet A. Washington (P)2016 Tantor Americas Medicine & Health Care Industry United States Medical Ethics Medicine Health Social justice Infant Health Care Africa Mental Health Medical History African Medicine

What the critics say

"[C]ompulsively readable." ( Publishers Weekly)
All stars
Most relevant
A well researched, in depth, and harrowing account of the impacts of systemic racism in medicine. An important must read!

Brilliant!

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This is a must listen. Educational. Eye opening. Disturbing.
My only critique is that I feel the narrator should have been a woman, as the author was speaking in the first person.

Listen to this book!

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I'm speechless after reading this, and similarly find it hard to conjure up words to recommend. This extensive work documents a history of medical abuse and experimentation on blacks from the slave trade to present, ongoing, and future. It ends with a credible list of lessons and recommendations.

This is simply a must read.

Horrifying Must Read of Racism and Healthcare

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Great story, a little dry for listening. Would have preferred if it was more engaging

Great story, a little dry for listening

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