Maleficence Toward the Minority Patient

Abstract

The idea of race-based medicine creates maleficence (harm) in minority patient care. Eugenic influence created false assumptions and stereotypes (the homogeneity of characteristics, experience, and behavior of a group and individuals from that group) about the black patient’s body. Physicians’ infatuation of the black body created a disturbing language, which caused unconscionable harm in the clinical practice. Inaccurate semantics and perceptions provided the justification for inhumane experimentation on black bodies.