The University Of Utah: The Ethics Of Medicine

Press release from The University of Utah:

Morgan Aguilar

September 28, 2021

Three upcoming virtual presentations by Harriet A. Washington:

Thursday, Oct. 7:

• ‘A Hideous Monster of the mind’: Medical Mythology and the construction of ‘Blackness’ (12-1 p.m. livestream)
• “Don’t Let the Lion tell the Giraffe’s story”: How the Curation of History Hobbles Medical Ethics (5:30-7 p.m. Evening Ethics Discussion via Zoom)

Friday, Oct. 8:

• “Medical Apartheid and Beautiful Lies” (12-1 p.m. Cowan Memorial Public Lecture and Priscilla M. Mayden Endowed Lecture via Zoom)

The University of Utah will welcome Harriet A. Washington to virtually speak to the campus community during three events Oct. 7-8, 2021. Washington is a prolific science writer, editor, and ethicist who is the author of the seminal Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present and five other well-received books. Washington is a writing fellow in Bioethics at Harvard Medical School and a fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine.

Washington’s virtual visit to the U is organized and sponsored by the U’s Center for Health Ethics, Arts, and Humanities (CHeEtAH), Spencer S. Eccles Health Sciences Library, J. Willard Marriott Library, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), Tanner Humanities Center and the School of Medicine Office of Health EDI.

You write about a wide range of important topics. What are some things that you have emphasized in your research and writings?

What's long consumed me is the morality of medicine, the ethics of medicine. In particular, how does it play out in the medical perception and treatment of marginalized people, including African-Americans, but also other marginalized people.

I've also always been fascinated by toxicity and poisoning. I managed the Poison Control Center long ago in a different life, and I've written about that as well. I wrote a book about environmental racism and about the cognitive effects that I think tend to be underplayed. There is not enough understanding and discussion of how our intense exposure to toxins as people of color in particular—especially Native Americans and African-Americans—how it's affecting our cognition, how well we think and different behaviors.

What initially drew you into this work?

A lot of things brought me to it, but I would say that Albert Schweitzer is someone who fascinated me from the time I was eight years old. I found everything I could read about him. He began as a philosopher and only decided to become a physician when he was almost 30 years old, which was really unusual for this time. And he always had the idea of practicing among the disadvantaged in the global south. Early on, when I was young, 8, 9, 10, I saw him as a selfless martyr to medical missions. And in one sense, he still is that, but as I got older reading, the same works revealed to me, layers of things that I had not perceived early on.

What is “medical apartheid”?

Apartheid was the official policy in South Africa of approaching two races as separate entities in every sphere of life. And that's exactly what happened in the U.S. medical system—Black people and White people regarded as very different entities and were treated extremely differently and continued to be treated extremely differently. Over the centuries this had been done, it has resulted in physicians and scientists being trained to treat African Americans differently, although it's not always openly acknowledged and not always recognized. So, apartheid, I think, is a really good way of summarizing it up. Understanding that this system exists, that we don't have a single healthcare system with the same goals for everybody, is key to addressing the problems and making sure that everybody has equitable access to healthcare.

Why are these topics important for everyone, not only those in the medical field?

Partly because medicine appropriates everything and partly because so many entities affect medicine. Many of the flaws in medicine that I contest most fiercely have been created by laws. The attitudes have persisted for centuries, but at some point, someone enacted a law that now cemented it into medical practice. So, it's important for people in law to understand this history. It's important for politicians, it's important for social work, it's important for historians, more than anything.

I'm hard-pressed to think of any sphere of U.S. life in which knowing the history would not be important. I think everyone should know it, partly because everyone should know the truth and partly because it does impinge on so many people's opinions and policies.

Learn more about Washington and the three opportunities to see her present here.

This press release was produced by The University of Utah. The views expressed here are the author’s own.