The underutilization of mental health services within the African-American, female community can be attributed to several historical factors, such as stigma towards mental illness, societal perception of black women and the cultural mistrust for health professionals. According to Mental Health America, stigma constitutes as one of the predominant barriers to seeking clinical care; 63% of the African-American population equate disorders, such as depression and anxiety, to facets of personal weakness (2016). This negative connotation has been passed down from generation to generation, which has enabled the vicious cycle to persist in the black diaspora. Stereotypes and prejudices of a given community work together to influence certain behaviors
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It all unfolds when a black tobacco farmer from Virginia experiences extreme, abdominal pain for a year-long period and seeks out medical attention at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Physicians diagnose the young woman with cervical cancer and give her immediate treatment for her condition (Zielinski 2010). The unethical action soon follows as Lacks’ health care provider, Dr. Howard Jones, takes her cells without her knowledge nor permission and sends a sample to fellow scientists for germ line experimentation. It is important to note that before 1951, growing and sustaining new cell lines were not possible. Researchers were able to change this notion by making a grand discovery in medical history: immortal cells. The female …show more content…
In addition to the outstanding gains in medical research, large companies have made a profit off of this discovery. Unfortunately, the cancer had spread to other parts of Lack’s body and she died a few months after her initial diagnosis. The patient did not receive any form of compensation for being the original “owner” of the immortal cells. Medical professionals involved in the commercialization of HeLa cells never informed Lacks about her contribution to medicine. In fact, the young woman’s family had been living in poverty and struggling to find affordable health insurance when million-dollar industries were being brought to life as products of their loved one’s indestructible
It all unfolds when a black tobacco farmer from Virginia experiences extreme, abdominal pain for a year-long period and seeks out medical attention at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Physicians diagnose the young woman with cervical cancer and give her immediate treatment for her condition (Zielinski 2010). The unethical action soon follows as Lacks’ health care provider, Dr. Howard Jones, takes her cells without her knowledge nor permission and sends a sample to fellow scientists for germ line experimentation. It is important to note that before 1951, growing and sustaining new cell lines were not possible. Researchers were able to change this notion by making a grand discovery in medical history: immortal cells. The female …show more content…
In addition to the outstanding gains in medical research, large companies have made a profit off of this discovery. Unfortunately, the cancer had spread to other parts of Lack’s body and she died a few months after her initial diagnosis. The patient did not receive any form of compensation for being the original “owner” of the immortal cells. Medical professionals involved in the commercialization of HeLa cells never informed Lacks about her contribution to medicine. In fact, the young woman’s family had been living in poverty and struggling to find affordable health insurance when million-dollar industries were being brought to life as products of their loved one’s indestructible