Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: Tuskegee

  • Movie review: Miss Evers’ Boys

    P. Ravi ShankarKuala Lumpur, Malaysia The Tuskegee Syphilis study was a dark chapter in United States history. In 1932, the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) began to study the natural history of progression of syphilis. The study was originally called the “Tuskegee study of untreated syphilis in the negro male” and is now referred…

  • Bloody segregation: The story of how Charles Richard Drew found life abundantly

    Amy DeMattGreensburg, Pennsylvania, United States “Desperation, weakness, vulnerability – these things will always be exploited. You need to protect the weak, ring-fence them, with something far stronger than empathy.”—Zadie Smith What if, instead of simply practicing empathy, you could literally become a part of someone else? What if you could join a part of your…

  • “Mississippi Appendectomy” and other stories: When silence is complicity

    Alida RolEugene, Oregon, United States The world moves fast and it would rather pass u by than 2 stop and c what makes u cry.– Tupac Shakur, “The Rose That Grew from Concrete” She sits perched on the exam table in a too-large gown. We talk about a hysterectomy I have recommended, to remove the fibroid…