Race Based Medicine an Introduction In a society where one can get on a plane and be halfway around the world in a day, it is likely that everyone has encountered someone who looks different from them, whether it is skin color or other physical features. Some people of course look more alike than others and that is where skin color has been used as a tool to differentiate people from different parts of the world. However, this has led to many horrific situations of racism in the past that resulted in slavery and genocides throughout the world. Race as relating to humans can be defined as “a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock” or “a class or kind of people unified by shared interests, habits, or characteristics” or even “a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits” (Merriam Webster Online). With all of these varying definitions of race it is easy to see how problems arise because of it. So what is race based medicine? Race based medicine is “the practice of using race or ethnic origin as a distinguishing feature of populations or individuals seeking health” (Cohn 552). This practice can be seen in the clinic, especially with certain diseases like sickle cell anemia which is more prevalent in black populations, cystic fibrosis which is increasingly common in people of north European descent, and finally Tay-Sachs disease which is highly associated with Ashkenazi Jewish populations (Collier 752). As with many topics there are people that have taken a stand on either side of the race based medicine debate. There are those scientists who are on the side that “understanding the unique patterns of genes across patient populations defined by race will help identify population... ... middle of paper ... ...ll 2006, p 497-499. Cohn, Jay N., The Use of Race and Ethnicity in Medicine: Lessons from the African-American Heart Failure Trial, J.L. Med. & Ethics, Race and Ethnicity, Fall 2006, p 552-554. Collier Roger, A race-based detour to personalized medicine, CMAJ. April 17, 2012 vol. 184 no. 7, p E351–E353. Collier Roger, Race and genetics in the doctor’s office, CMAJ. April 17, 2012 vol. 184 no. 7, p 752-753. Fine, Michael J., Ibrahim, Said A., Thomas, Stephen B., The Role of Race and Genetics in Health Disparities Research, American Journal of Public Health, Dec. 2005, Vol. 95, No. 12, p 2125-2128. "Race." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 4 May 2014. . Roberts DE. What's Wrong with Race-Based Medicine?: Genes, Drugs, and Health Disparities. Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology. 2011;12(1):1-21.
Dorothy Roberts is social justice advocate and law scholar who preaches the message that race-based medicine is bad medicine. She believes that doctors use race, instead of tests and observations, as a shortcut to give diagnoses. Her main argument is that there is only one race, the human race. In her Ted Talk, Roberts goes over statistics to explain why she thinks that race-based medicine is barbaric and shouldn’t be practiced.
Even to present day the there is still a bias among doctors when it comes to treating and diagnosing of black people.The things that kill black the most are preventable and curable Washington says“that blacks are not dying of exotic, incurable, poorly understood illness nor from a genetic disease that target them only but rather from common ailments that are more often prevented and treated among whites than among blacks”(Washington 2006). The most experiment that show how true this statement is the Tuskegee syphilis experiment sponsored by the government of the United States. In this famous experiment, black was infected with the bacteria that causes syphilis.This ...
In conclusion, It it is very necessary that our health care officials try harder to gain trust with minorities so that medicine can be focused more on equality. We all know that for decades our country was very diverse and everyone was treated differently. Although things have changed and it is sometimes important to preserve our past, past actions should not still be carried out. Even today, racism still occurs and it hard for minorities to feel safe when visiting hospitals and doctor’s offices. Minorities should be given equal medical opportunities, be given the honest truth on their diagnosis and treatments and most importantly be given some sort of health care so they can be treated.
Paul, D.A., Locke, R., Zook, K., Leef, K.H., Stefano, J.L. & Colmorgan, G. (2006). Racial
On November 11th, 2004, NitroMed, a Massachusetts based pharmaceutical company published a study on the effects of a new drug called BiDil in treating heart failure among African Americans in the New England Journal of Medicine (Taylor 2049). Since announcing the study, NitroMed’s research has sparked controversy surrounding the ethical implications and scientific evidence of race-based medicine. This study marks a breakthrough in race-based drug treatments as the first pharmaceutical ever researched, endorsed and targeted for a single ethnic group (Pollack 1). The racially-specific pharmaceutical initiative is a product of tremendous government funding allotted by the Clinton administration to the Human Genome Project at the turn of the millennium. Since then, much medical research has focused on understanding the human genome in search of genetic explanations for health problems while funding and interest have decreased in social-related health research and medical programs for poor and underserved populations (Braun 162).
Williams, D. R., Lavizzo-Mourey, R., & Warren, R. C. (1994). The concept of race and health
Williams, D. R., & Jackson, P. (2014, April 1). Health Affairs. Social Sources Of Racial Disparities In Health. Retrieved April 29, 2014, from http://content.healthaffairs.org/content/24/2/325.short
Williams, D. R., & Jackson, P. B. (2005). Social sources of racial disparities in health. Health Affairs, 24(2), 325-334. doi:10.1377/hlthaff.24.2.325
Brooks, Jamie D., King, Meredith L., (2008). Geneticizing Disease. Implications for Racial Health Disparities. Center for American Progress. Progressive Ideas for a Strong, Just, and Free America. Retrieved from https://www.geneticsandsociety.org/downloads/2008_geneticizing_disease.pdf
“Racial and ethnic disparities are the differences in the rate of incidence, prevalence, mortality, and burden of diseases and other adverse health conditions that exist among specific racial and ethnic population groups” (Kominski, 2014, p. 95).
Race can be used as a way to link a person to their ancestry, which can lead doctors to critical information that can give their patient the best treatment they can. With all of the advances in medicine there is still no way to determine a patient’s specific genetics and be able to treat each person with respect to their unique genes. Doctors narrow down possible risk factors and medication interactions by categorizing patients, by gender, age, and race. Race is a general way f...
"Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health." Public Health Reports. July/August 1998: 372 EBSCOhost. Available <http://www.epnet.com/ehost/login.html>. (11 February 1999)
According to the institute of Medicine (IOM), racism is a problem in the health care system, that is, the difference between the quality of health care received by minorities and non-minorities is due to racism. IOM is a nonprofit organization that advises the federal government and the public on science policy. It released a report that on average, minorities receive a lower quality of care, even when factors such as income and type of health insurance are accounted for. The report by IOM states that racial stereotypes and prejudice are the cause of the health care disparities. The article by IOM points ...
Today’s society protects against discrimination through laws, which have been passed to protect minorities. The persons in a minority can be defined as “a group having little power or representation relative to other groups within a society” (The Free Dictionary). It is not ethical for any person to discriminate based on race or ethnicity in a medical situation, whether it takes place in the private settings of someone’s home or in a public hospital. Racial discrimination, in a medical setting, is not ethical on the grounds of legal statues, moral teachings, and social standings.
Despite the substantial developments in diagnostic and treatment processes, there is convincing evidence that ethnic and racial minorities normally access and receive low quality services compared to the majority communities (Lum, 2011). As such, minority groups have higher mortality and morbidity rates arising from both preventable and treatable diseases judged against the majority groups. Elimination of both racial and ethnic disparities is mainly politically sensitive, but plays an important role in the equitable access of services, including the health care ones without discrimination. In addition, accountability, accessibility, and availability of equitable health care services are crucial for the continually growing