An Ethical Recovery from Breast Cancer: an examination of disparities in breast reconstruction and a discussion about rectifying these disparities

Black women are most likely to receive mastectomies, yet the least likely to have receipt of breast reconstruction. This disparity in breast and plastic surgery care is unethical and has been documented in the literature and has been witnessed clinically, but far most importantly, it is continued to be lived by Black women all over the nation. The bioethical principles of agency and social justice are called into question as Black women are not given an adequate understanding of their reconstructive options and are not being treated equally or equitably by the healthcare system. As noted by literature, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic and insurance status as well as comorbidities are contributing to this gap in care. As far as solutions go, there must be a multifaceted approach to mitigating this disparity. I have adopted Dr. Butler’s categorization of solutions to understand the exact approach we need to have, which includes patient education, legislation and academic medical institution, to make the recovery from breast cancer ethical for all women. In this thesis, I will go through the literature and garner perspectives from surgeons as well as patients who received breast reconstruction to aid in the understanding of this disparity and what needs to be done to fix it.

Grantor dc:publisher

Temple University. Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Gerald, Mykal

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Rocco, Providenza Loera
• Averill, Catherine

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Jones, Nora L.
• Strand, Nicolle K.
• Cabey, Vielka Whitney

• Medical ethics
• Surgery
• African American studies
• Breast reconstruction
• Breast surgery
• Disparities
• Plastic surgery
• Social determinants of health
• Urban bioethics

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/7723

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/7723