Medical Apartheid

Harriet Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History Of Medical Experimentation On Black Americans From Colonial Times To The Present Journalist and medical ethicist Harriet Washington details medical research on African-Americans from colonial times to the 20th century. She describes the Tuskegee Syphilis Study that began in 1932 and was conducted by the US Public Health Service. Almost 400 African-American men were withheld treatment for syphilis to study how the disease would affect them in its late stages. The author contends that this is just one of several experiments that shaped the way in which African-Americans relate to today's medical industry. Ms. Washington is a finalist for the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction.