Michelle Obama and the Tuskegee Experiments

[Sefarst]

The problem with this story is that its not clear whether "the prospect of white doctors performing a trial with black teenage girls summoned the specter of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment of the mid-20th century" was the reason Michelle Obama "stopped that." The article doesn't provide a quote, so I'm left wondering whether or not that's a bit of inferred editorialism on the part of the journalist or if that was Obama's stated reason. If it was her stated reason it's reprehensible, but it seems like, if that was the case, they would have used a direct quote.

The need for race-based, income-based, region-based tests is clear. From: http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-6355527/How-vaccine-policy-is-made.html

And now for the elephant in the room. Cervical cancer is largely a disease associated with extreme poverty, smoking, lack of education, and less than sanitary living conditions. According to a 2005 National Cancer Institute report, most cervical cancer deaths occur in black women in the rural South, Hispanic women living along the Texas-Mexico border, white women in Appalachia, American Indians in the Northern Plains, Vietnamese-American women and Alaskan Natives. These groups are also more likely than other U.S. women to be diagnosed with other diseases like breast cancer, colorectal cancer and heart disease.

That said, I'm skeptical of the article in the sense that I hope Michelle Obama wouldn't be prejudice enough to stand in the way of medical research on the grounds that she didn't want white doctors doing research using black girls. Hence, I'm inclined to believe this is editorializing.

 

[BenBurch]

Do you folks absolutely fail to understand WHERE the University of Chicago Hospitals ARE? This was about maintaining good relationships with the community they serve.

This was an experimental therapy of unknown benefit, and as likely to not be beneficial or damaging as to actually be helpful.

Moreover it was to have been tested in a community that thinks that white doctors and hospitals are out to get them. Seriously. This is the CURRENT attitude, not an attitude from 35 years ago. There is a great fear of involuntary sterilization. There is a great fear that diseases are being INTRODUCED into the black community. Many in that community think HIV was a government plot. Many think that Crack was created by the government to destroy the black community. And these attitudes run deep. They are fueled by things like the Tuskegee experiments, and by the involuntary sterilization that WAS practiced on black patients vastly disproportionately in the past.

Her role as a PUBLIC AFFAIRS officer was to offer JUST this sort of opinion. She could have been ignored, but obviously the medical ethics board at the University of Chicago thought she was likely to be correct.

EVEN bringing this up is despicable in the extreme. Unless, of course, you want me to dredge up the dirt on Cindy McCain yet again?

 

[corplinx]

Wait, so its not okay to test it on black females. They went to schools for test subjects where the schools just happened to be black.

So does this mean Michelle wanted the hospital to target whites?

Talk about an elephant in the room.

I mean honestly, is there any reason to defend this at all? I see Burch trying hard, but he is an actual member of the Democratic party. He doesn't just vote Democrat. His job is to astroturf forums like these.

 

[BenBurch]

Wait, so its not okay to test it on black females. They went to schools for test subjects where the schools just happened to be black.

So does this mean Michelle wanted the hospital to target whites?

Talk about an elephant in the room.

I mean honestly, is there any reason to defend this at all? I see Burch trying hard, but he is an actual member of the Democratic party. He doesn't just vote Democrat. His job is to astroturf forums like these.

**** you.

First, I am no longer a member of the local party. I gave that up recently because work keeps me from doing a good job.

Second, its not my job to do anything of the sort. What my duties were included registering voters and tromping the neighborhood attaching literature to doorknobs. Sometimes I was a poll watcher.

Third, this is CHICAGO we are talking here. I lived in that very neighborhood. I went to school there. I know these people. - You are much, much more likely to find a receptive black community almost anywhere else. Suspicion here runs very deep. To have run this study out here would have destroyed the goodwill the University of Chicago hospitals have earned with their outreach programs, and would have doomed many to suffer UNTREATED disease rather than ever again trusting anything U of C said.

 

[BenBurch]

Now, do we all want to hear about Cindy McCain's felonious past?

 

[Upchurch]

Wait, so its not okay to test it on black females. They went to schools for test subjects where the schools just happened to be black.

Sorry, but how do you know they went to schools for test subjects where the schools just happened to be black?

So does this mean Michelle wanted the hospital to target whites?

As we don't really know why she stopped the research, it is really impossible to say.

I mean honestly, is there any reason to defend this at all?

Is there any particular reason this is on this particular board? I don't seem to recall Michelle Obama running for US President.

 

[varwoche]

Similar to Sefarst's line of inquiry...

The prospect of white doctors performing a trial with black teenage girls summoned the specter of the Tuskegee syphilis experiment of the mid-20th century, when white doctors let hundreds of black men go untreated to study the disease.

... it's not clear from the wording if it was Michelle who summoned the specter.

(Even if she evoked Tuskegee, what a non-event.)

Or is dem black folk too stoopid to make up dere own minds?

It's more than a bit ironic that this fallacious statement (inference, to be precise) is based on a bigoted premise.

 

[Puppycow]

In retrospect, now that we know that the vaccine is (as far as we can tell) safe and effective, it looks different than it would look to the black community at the time when it was still experimental. Basically Michelle saved the hospital a PR headache because, justified or not, there have probably been an outcry from the black community if black teenage girls were the subject of medical experiments with new vaccines.

 

[corplinx]

Basically Michelle saved the hospital a PR headache because, justified or not, there have probably been an outcry from the black community if black teenage girls were the subject of medical experiments with new vaccines.

Yeah, she really helped the hospital dodge a bullet there. She needs a raise. Since they weren't targetting black females or anything. Good job on avoiding an issue that didn't exist Michelle.

 

[corplinx]

Sorry, but how do you know they went to schools for test subjects where the schools just happened to be black?

Do you have evidence to suggest they were targeting blacks? If that is the case I could see why there would be nervousness about it.

Edited to add:

I reread TFA and see this:

researchers proposed approaching local school principals about enlisting black teenage girls as research subjects

 

[BenBurch]

You *do* want the Cindy McCain thing drug out, don't you?

 

[Puppycow]

Here, according to the Times is the specific thing she stopped:

researchers proposed approaching local school principals about enlisting black teenage girls as research subjects

It's not clear to me that she prevented anyone who wanted to be part of that trial from joining it, only "approaching local school principals about enlisting black teenage girls as research subjects." You can see how an active effort to "enlist" people of a certain race might turn into a controversy for the hospital.

 

[corplinx]

Since I live in a city with more racial BS than most others, I honestly can't blame Michelle for this if they were targeting blacks even for benign and helpful purposes.

Here in Memphis we used to have a biscuit eater named Maxine Smith that would have had a field day had a hospital here don't something that targeted blacks for experimental medicine.

Maybe if Barack becomes president, BS like that will start to become a relic.

 

[plumjam]

 

[Puppycow]

Since I live in a city with more racial BS than most others, I honestly can't blame Michelle for this if they were targeting blacks even for benign and helpful purposes.

Here in Memphis we used to have a biscuit eater named Maxine Smith that would have had a field day had a hospital here don't something that targeted blacks for experimental medicine.

Maybe if Barack becomes president, BS like that will start to become a relic.

Yay! I agree. Respect. Hopefully it will become a thing of the past.

If you think about human nature, it's not suprising that paranoia about past racial injustices would linger for many years after those injustices are (mostly) over. Electing a black president might just help sweep most of those remnants away.

 

[Upchurch]

Do you have evidence to suggest they were targeting blacks? If that is the case I could see why there would be nervousness about it.

Edited to add:

I reread TFA and see this:

(TFA?)

Yeah, I saw that. That's why I questioned your statement about it being almost coincidental.

Again, I have to ask: is the important? We know next to nothing about what happened and Michelle isn't running for anything.

 

[corplinx]

(TFA?)

Yeah, I saw that. That's why I questioned your statement about it being almost coincidental.

Was rushing and missed it, my bad.

Again, I have to ask: is the important? We know next to nothing about what happened and Michelle isn't running for anything.

It could be argued that she is the next president's closest advisor.

 

[SezMe]

Now, do we all want to hear about Cindy McCain's felonious past?

No. Let the pugs run the slime machine. If you wrestle with pigs, they have fun and you get dirty...and lose. If you are an Obama supporter then I think it is your obligation to support his campaign in a way that he has explicity requested.

Since McCain has said he wants a clean campaign, BPSCG might want to walk in his candidate's shoes as well.

 

[SezMe]

It could be argued that she is the next president's closest advisor.

I think Barak has said as much. And, since she is going out on the campaign trail, I think she is up for scrutiny. Cindy is not playing such a role; she's just arm candy so attacks directed at her are, in my book, off limits.

 

[Upchurch]

Was rushing and missed it, my bad.

Oh, gotcha.

What does TFA stand for? The ******* Article?

It could be argued that she is the next president's closest advisor.

Sure, but I don't really remember in depth analysis of the decisions of Laura Bush or Teresa Heinz Kerry last time around. Why is it a big deal this year?

Also, we don't really know anything about this incident. Her involvement in the decision making could have been entirely advisory. I mean, what authority does a VP of Community Affairs have over what medical studies get approved? Seems a little out of scope for the position.