Bioethics journalist to speak on "American Apartheid: Race, History and Medical Logic"

Harriet Washington, progressive bioethics journalist and editor, will speak on “American Apartheid: Race, History and Medical Logic” at the University of Richmond on Oct. 30, at 7 p.m., in the Brown-Alley Room of Weinstein Hall as a part of the 2008–09 WILL/WGSS/Quest Speaker Series.

In her lecture, Washington will discuss how American blacks have long suffered from health adversities not shared by whites, and the problem persists today. As Washington writes, the “racial health divide confronts us everywhere we look, from doubled black-infant death rates to African-American life expectancies that fall years behind whites.” Her talk will provide a provocative answer as to how this disparity came about and what must be done today to remedy these inequities.

Washington has written numerous books about the field of bioethics. Her most recent is Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present. She has been a fellow in ethics at Harvard Medical School, a fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health, and a senior research scholar at the National Center for Bioethics at the Tuskegee Institute.

Each year, the WILL (Women Involved in Living and Learning), WGSS (Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies) and Quests programs sponsor a speaker series to bring prominent women and men to the University of Richmond to speak about gender and diversity-related issues.

A book signing will follow this event. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call (804) 289-8578.

Posted January 10, 2008