The forty-year Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which took place in and around Tuskegee, Alabama, from the 1930s through the 1970s, has become a profound metaphor for medical racism, government malfeasance, and physician arrogance. Susan M. Reverby's Examining Tuskegee is a comprehensive analysis of the notorious study of untreated syphilis among African American men, who were told by U.S. Public Health Service doctors that they were being treated, not just watched, for their late-stage syphilis. With rigorous clarity, Reverby investigates the study and its aftermath from multiple perspectives and illuminates the reasons for its continued power and resonance in our collective memory.

This textbook for instruction in biomedical research ethics can also serve as a valuable reference for professionals in the field of bioethics. The 149 cases included in the book are grouped in nine chapters, each of which covers a key area of debate in the field. Some of the case studies are classics, including the famous cases of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study (in which subjects with syphilis were not given treatment) and the Willowbrook hepatitis studies (in which institutionalized subjects were intentionally exposed to hepatitis). Others focus on such current issues as human embryonic stem cell research, cloning by somatic nuclear transfer, and the design and function of institutional review boards. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction that places the issues raised in context; this is followed by a number of cases (each of which is no more than a few pages). Study questions meant to encourage further discussion follow each case.After an introductory discussion of the history and tenets of ethics in medical research, the book's chapters cover the topics of oversight and study design; informed consent; the selection of subjects; conflicts of interest; the social effects of research; embryos, fetuses, and children; genetic research; the use of animals; and authorship and publication. Following these chapters are appendixes with the texts of the Nuremburg Code and the World Declaration of Geneva, two key documents in the establishment of bioethical standards for research. Also included are a glossary, a table of cases by general category, and an alphabetical listing of cases.

Her name was Henrietta Lacks, but scientists know her as HeLa. She was a poor Southern tobacco farmer who worked the same land as her slave ancestors, yet her cells—taken without her knowledge—became one of the most important tools in medicine: The first “immortal” human cells grown in culture, which are still alive today, though she has been dead for more than sixty years. HeLa cells were vital for developing the polio vaccine; uncovered secrets of cancer, viruses, and the atom bomb’s effects; helped lead to important advances like in vitro fertilization, cloning, and gene mapping; and have been bought and sold by the billions.
Yet Henrietta Lacks remains virtually unknown, buried in an unmarked grave.
Henrietta’s family did not learn of her “immortality” until more than twenty years after her death, when scientists investigating HeLa began using her husband and children in research without informed consent. And though the cells had launched a multimillion-dollar industry that sells human biological materials, her family never saw any of the profits. As Rebecca Skloot so brilliantly shows, the story of the Lacks family—past and present—is inextricably connected to the dark history of experimentation on African Americans, the birth of bioethics, and the legal battles over whether we control the stuff we are made of.

Current evidence indicates a persistent disparity in health status, morbidity, and mortality among racial/ethnic minorities. African Americans, especially those who are poor, demonstrate the greatest health disadvantage of all groups in the United States, regardless of the health status indicator used (Health United States, 2001). Therefore, one of the major social challenges we face today is to understand these health disparities by identifying those factors that contribute to, or maintain, these persistent differences.

Creates a new framework for approaching Black women's wellness, by merging theory and practice with both personal narratives and public policy.

Written by black women for black women and sponsored by the National Black Women's Health Project, here is an honest, straight-from-the-heart guide reminiscent of Our Bodies, Ourselves that addresses the physical, emotional, and spiritual health issues and concerns of black women today. Body weight and image -- Our skin, hair, eyes, and teeth --Moving our bodies -- Eating right -- Killing us softly: cigarettes and alcohol -- More than "just say no": coping with drug abuse -- We are at risk: diseases that strike us -- Our bodies growing older -- The reproductive system and menstruation -- Birth control -- Abortion --Reproductive-tract infections -- Fighting fibroids -- How to get pregnant: reproduction and infertility -- Having a healthy baby -- The hysterectomy decision -- Menopause: going through the change -- Checkups and tests we can't live without --
Dealing with doctors and hospitals -- Alternative healing --Emotional pain, stress, and healing with therapy -- The self-help revolution -- The healing power of spirituality -- Loving ourselves --Loving our men -- Women loving women -- Sexuality and having sex safely -- Loving our children -- Violence in our lives -- Incest and child abuse --HIV and AIDS -- Our work, our world.
Linda Villarosa is a senior editor at Essence magazine. 175 photos and illustrations.

The United States is rapidly transforming into one of the most racially and ethnically diverse nations in the world. Groups commonly referred to as minorities--including Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, and Alaska Natives--are the fastest growing segments of the population and emerging as the nation's majority. Despite the rapid growth of racial and ethnic minority groups, their representation among the nation (TM)s health professionals has grown only modestly in the past 25 years. This alarming disparity has prompted the recent creation of initiatives to increase diversity in health professions. In the Nation's Compelling Interest considers the benefits of greater racial and ethnic diversity, and identifies institutional and policy-level mechanisms to garner broad support among health professions leaders, community members, and other key stakeholders to implement these strategies. Assessing the potential benefits of greater racial and ethnic diversity among health professionals will improve the access to and quality of healthcare for all Americans.

America’s Bitter Pill is Steven Brill’s acclaimed book on how the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was written, how it is being implemented, and, most important, how it is changing—and failing to change—the rampant abuses in the healthcare industry. It’s a fly-on-the-wall account of the titanic fight to pass a 961-page law aimed at fixing America’s largest, most dysfunctional industry. It’s a penetrating chronicle of how the profiteering that Brill first identified in his trailblazing Time magazine cover story continues, despite Obamacare. And it is the first complete, inside account of how President Obama persevered to push through the law, but then failed to deal with the staff incompetence and turf wars that crippled its implementation.

For most of the first half of the twentieth century, tuberculosis ranked among the top three causes of mortality among urban African Americans. Often afflicting an entire family or large segments of a neighborhood, the plague of TB was as mysterious as it was fatal. Samuel Kelton Roberts Jr. examines how individuals and institutions--black and white, public and private--responded to the challenges of tuberculosis in a segregated society. Reactionary white politicians and health officials promoted "racial hygiene" and sought to control TB through Jim Crow quarantines, Roberts explains. African Americans, in turn, protested the segregated, overcrowded housing that was the true root of the tuberculosis problem. Moderate white and black political leadership reconfigured definitions of health and citizenship, extending some rights while constraining others. Meanwhile, those who suffered with the disease--as its victims or as family and neighbors--made the daily adjustments required by the devastating effects of the "white plague." Exploring the politics of race, reform, and public health, Infectious Fear uses the tuberculosis crisis to illuminate the limits of racialized medicine and the roots of modern health disparities. Ultimately, it reveals a disturbing picture of the United States' health history while offering a vision of a more democratic future.

"Regardless of how much money you have, your race, where you live, what religion you follow, you are going through something. Or you already have or you will. As momma always said, "Everybody's got something." So begins beloved Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts's new memoir in which she recounts the incredible journey that's been her life so far, and the lessons she's learned along the way. With grace, heart, and humor, she writes about overcoming breast cancer only to learn five years later that she will need a bone marrow transplant to combat a rare blood disorder, the grief and heartbreak she suffered when her mother passed away, her triumphant return to GMA after her medical leave.

At times mirroring and at times shockingly disparate to the rise of traditional white American medicine, the history of African-American health care is a story of traditional healers; root doctors; granny midwives; underappreciated and overworked African-American physicians; scrupulous and unscrupulous white doctors and scientists; governmental support and neglect; epidemics; and poverty. Virtually every part of this story revolves around race. More than 50 years after the publication of An American Dilemma, Gunnar Myrdal's 1944 classic about race relations in the USA, An American Health Dilemma presents a comprehensive and groundbreaking history and social analysis of race, race relations and the African-American medical and public health experience. Beginning with the origins of western medicine and science in Egypt, Greece and Rome the authors explore the relationship between race, medicine, and health care from the precursors of American science and medicine through the days of the slave trade with the harrowing middle passage and equally deadly breaking-in period through the Civil War and the gains of reconstruction and the reversals caused by Jim Crow laws. It offers an extensive examination of the history of intellectual and scientific racism that evolved to give sanction to the mistreatment, medical abuse, and neglect of African Americans and other non-white people. Also included are biographical portraits of black medical pioneers like James McCune Smith, the first African American to earn a degree from a European university, and anecdotal vignettes,like the tragic story of "the Hottentot Venus", which illustrate larger themes. An American Health Dilemma promises to become an irreplaceable and essential look at African-American and medical history and will provide an invaluable baseline for future exploration of race and racism in the American health system.

In Mental Health among African Americans: Innovations in Research and Practice, Erlanger A. Turner presents a new theoretical framework for understanding mental health disparities that emphasizes the need for culturally sensitive clinical practices and integration of Afrocentric values in order to address the lower rates of African Americans seeking treatment in the United States. Turner traces this reluctance to the unethical scientific research practices that characterized experiments in recent history, like the well-known Tuskegee Syphilis study, and stresses the need for providers to address race-related stress.

Black men need hope to survive and, ultimately, flourish. As mental health is a critical but often neglected issue, especially among Black men, Care for the Mental and Spiritual Health of Black Men examines that sensitive topic in conjunction with reflections on race, gender, sexuality, and class to offer a hopeful and constructive framework for care and counseling, particularly for Black men. These are not separate from spiritual health and growth, as well, but both are integral to holistic, dynamic wellbeing. In this, the author provides a careful and critical analysis of spiritual hope and healing as ingredient to individual and communal flourishing. As such, this volume will be a vital resource for health practitioners, spiritual caregivers, and providers in community care who serve to bolster the mental wellbeing of Black men.

The The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health is an exploration of the Black mental health crisis--and a comprehensive road map to getting the care you deserve in an unequal system. Black people die at disproportionately high rates due to chronic illness, resulting from poverty, under-education, and the effects of racism. This book is an exploration of Black mental health in today's world, the forces that have undermined mental health progress for African Americans, and what needs to happen for African Americans to heal psychological distress, find community, and undo years of stigma and marginalization in order to access effective mental health care.
African American mental health expert Rheeda Walker offers important information on the mental health crisis in the Black community, how to combat stigma, spot potential mental illness, how to practice emotional wellness, and how to get the best care possible in system steeped in racial bias. This book is an essential and much-needed resource.

Relying on a multidisciplinary framework of inquiry and critical perspective, this edited volume addresses the unique experiences of Black males within various stages of contact in the criminal justice system. It provides a comprehensive overview of the administration of justice, mental and physical health issues faced by Black males, and reintegration into society after system involvement.

In his phenomenal #1 New York Times bestseller Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man, Steve Harvey told women what it takes to succeed in love. Now, he tells everyone how to succeed in life, giving you the keys to fulfill your purpose. Countless books on success tell you what you need to get that you don't already possess. In Act Like a Success, Think Like a Success, Steve Harvey tells you how to achieve your dreams using the gift you already have. Every one of us was born with a gift endowed by our creator--something you do the best at with very little effort. While it can be like someone else's, your gift is yours alone. No one can take it away. You are the only one who can use it--or waste it. Steve shows how that gift holds your greatest chance at success, and the fulfillment of your life's mission and purpose. He helps you learn to define your gift--whether it's being a problem solver, a people-connector, a whiz with numbers, or having an eye for colors. He makes clear that your job is not your gift; you may use it in your work, but it can also be used in your marriage or relationship, your community, and throughout every aspect of your life. Throughout, he provides a set of principles that will help you direct your gift. "The scriptures say your gift will make room for you and put you in the presence of great men," Steve reminds us. This book is your roadmap to identifying your gift, acknowledging it, perfecting it, connecting it to a vehicle, and riding it to success. Because Success is the gift you already have." Funny yet firm, told in Steve's warm and insightful voice, and peppered with anecdotes from his own life, practical advice, and truthful insights, this essential guide can help you transform your life and achieve everything you were born to.