The history of racially motivated experimentation on black Americans within the United States health system – often conducted without their knowledge or consent – has had a detrimental impact on black healthcare in the country, asserts Jamaican-American oncologist Dr Fitzroy Dawkins. In an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last week, he said denial, distrust and fear – of the disease itself and of being used as guinea pigs – looms large in the cancer culture in African Americans, and during active practice, he tried to change the deep-seated positions. “So much has changed in medical protocols over the last half century that these fears are no longer valid.
Yet, African American cancer patients have essentially sidelined themselves from finding a cure. There’s no doubt that medicine has made incredible strides in treating and even curing cancers. But there’s a portion of the population that’s missing out on these medical advances.
Despite the advances, the African American history in the health sector is still very poignant today,” he said. In his book, Fighting for Survival – Conquering Cancer and the African American Experience , he said black Americans are not only haunted by the Tuskegee experiment, but also that of Henrietta Lacks. Lacks, during treatment for cervical cancer at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Maryland in 1951, had her cells cultured to create a cell line called HeLa without informed consent, and which is still being used for medical researc.
