The Medical Misuse Of Organ Donation In African American Culture

Great Essays
Introduction
In recent years, the African American culture has begun to evolve; past medical indiscretions are not weighing as heavily in the organ donation decision-making process. There is an apparent effort of healing and progress that can be ascribed to the open-minded Millennials (Generation Y) and Generation X. The demographic of these adults range in the age range of 18- 50, who accept and celebrate diversity are self-reliant and inventive, Gen X tend to reject the rules, Gen Y rewrite the rules (Scheff, Thiefoldt, 2004). With the progression of the generations and the shifting in the mentality toward society as a whole, this populous is encouraging positive strides for the organ donor arena within the African American culture.
With the changed mindset of these recent generations, they have undeniably stimulated an increase in organ donors; sadly, there is still a huge gap.
To continue penetrating the African American community and combat low organ donation, outreach, increased awareness and generating community involvement from the medical community is needed. Outreach will provide education, lessen distrust and begin to build a confidence that African Americans have lost. There was a time where African Americans trusted their physicians similar to how they revered their religious leaders. Rebuilding confidence will encourage a trusting relationship that will help African Americans feel comfortable about organ donation. Distrust of the Medical Community African Americans inherent distrust of the medical community has continued to negatively impact organ donations. Therefore, increasing the number of African American donors is crucial to this population’s sustainability and stabilization of health. Currently the gap of those in need of organs compared to those who are currently listed as organ donors is significant at a difference of 106, 307 people (OPTN, 2016), It is proven that the limited number of organ donations from African Americans is accredited to the misuse and exclusion of proper medical treatment experienced by the race. John R. Campbell, the interim executive director of the Wisconsin Donor Network in Milwaukee points out that “African Americans are sometimes hesitant about donation they wonder why they should give such a precious gift to a health-care system that if it doesn’t overtly exclude people of color doesn’t always try hard enough to include them” (Campbell, 2008). Campbell’s statement enlightens and gives understanding to why the medical misuse of this race of people created a distrust that is longstanding and devastating to its maturity.
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Such as, the disclosure of the Tuskegee clinical trial which became the most powerful historical event that formed African Americans distrust in the medical community. In Vanessa Gamble study published in the American Journal of Public Health, she indicated that “The Tuskegee trial has come to symbolize racism in medicine, misconduct in human research, the arrogance of physicians, and government abuse of Black people” (Gamble, 1997). The abuse and misuse is undeniable and can be proven time and time again.
History shows that the medical community created a distrust and unconfident relationship with African Americans. President Bill Clinton, describes the medical abuse in his 1997 apology for the 40 year Tuskegee clinical trial as, it "has reached far and deep, in ways that hurt our progress and divide our nation”. As a nation, our next step is rebuilding the African Americans relationship with the medical community. A renewed perspective of the new generations will lend to higher awareness and understanding of the importance of being involved in medical research and medical endeavors, in particular the importance of increasing the number of African American organ donors. Focusing on rebuilding African American trust makes it possible to heal the stagnation of progress and the division of the nation in relation to African Americans relationship with the medical community. Variables of African Americans Reluctance Susan E. Morgan, PHD performed a study to explore the reasons why African Americans are reluctant to become organ donors; she sampled 310 African American adult members of the NAACP. Each was surveyed about their attitudes, knowledge and beliefs about organ donation. Dr. Morgan analyzed several variables that attributes to African Americans reluctance of donating organs; The variables in her research included; Attitudes and Knowledge Medical Mistrust, Religion and Altruism, Bodily Integrity, “Ick and Jinx”

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