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

This revealing and informative study traces the convoluted history of medical experimentation on Black Americans in the USA since the middle of the eighteenth century. In an engaging narrative, Harriet A. Washington forcefully argues that diverse forms of racial discrimination have shaped both the relationship between white physicians and black patients and the attitude of the latter towards modern medicine in general. The book is divided into three parts: the first engages with the cultural memory of medical experimentation; the second examines recent cases of medical abuse and research; while the last addresses the complex relationship between racism and medicine. While some topics are familiar, like the notorious ‘Tuskegee Syphilis Study’ (1932–72), in which African Americans suffering from the disease were prevented from receiving the necessary medication by the US Public Health Service so that the evolution of the disease could be observed, other episodes are less well-known to the general public.