One of the great things about science is that the more we learn the more we can do away with superstitions and practices that have no basis in science. For example, we know that aging is not genetically linked. It is linked to the break down of mitochondria in cells that release free radicals. Therefore, I may not need to diet, exercise, and not smoke or drink alcohol. I might actually do better by drinking red wine, getting enough sleep and being lucky. Science tells us that there is a genetic link to some forms of cancer. Certain markers make some people more likely to develop cancer in their lifetimes than other people. Scientists have worked to develop diagnostic tests for those markers and they have worked for better treatments administered earlier in the cancer’s development.
Science has been amazing and still science is just a method, a tool, a process. It should not have god like power in our lives. Quite the contrary. Scientists recently reported that men may not need to get prostate exams and PSA tests as early as previously recommended because prostate cancer is a slow developing disease and it is more likely a man would die of natural causes than from prostate cancer. I am fairly conversant with the scientific method, medical advances, etc. and I have not one iota of faith in scientists telling me to delay prostate exams or PSA tests. The medical profession and its historical relationship to African-Americans is depressing. The medical profession sought to validate the inherent inferiority of African-Americans since colonial times. The medical profession turned a blind eye to the Tuskeegee syphilis experiments that lasted for decades. The medical profession routinely provides disparate medical treatment to African-Americans. Much of this is documented in a book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington. This book was released in paperback earlier this year.
So call me crazy if I don’t listen to a medical establishment that has viewed my ancestors as sub-human test subjects routinely violating the mantra of 'do no harm.' It’s unfortunate that unlike the majority of the male population in this country I have no basis to trust anything I am told by the medical establishment. Maybe once we have the big talk about race in this country I can move beyond my mistrust of virtually every institution in this culture, the medical profession being only one of them.
Science has been amazing and still science is just a method, a tool, a process. It should not have god like power in our lives. Quite the contrary. Scientists recently reported that men may not need to get prostate exams and PSA tests as early as previously recommended because prostate cancer is a slow developing disease and it is more likely a man would die of natural causes than from prostate cancer. I am fairly conversant with the scientific method, medical advances, etc. and I have not one iota of faith in scientists telling me to delay prostate exams or PSA tests. The medical profession and its historical relationship to African-Americans is depressing. The medical profession sought to validate the inherent inferiority of African-Americans since colonial times. The medical profession turned a blind eye to the Tuskeegee syphilis experiments that lasted for decades. The medical profession routinely provides disparate medical treatment to African-Americans. Much of this is documented in a book Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present by Harriet A. Washington. This book was released in paperback earlier this year.
So call me crazy if I don’t listen to a medical establishment that has viewed my ancestors as sub-human test subjects routinely violating the mantra of 'do no harm.' It’s unfortunate that unlike the majority of the male population in this country I have no basis to trust anything I am told by the medical establishment. Maybe once we have the big talk about race in this country I can move beyond my mistrust of virtually every institution in this culture, the medical profession being only one of them.
