One legal issue that really stood out for me in “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan is the issue of racial discrimination when Tan describes the painful encounter between her mother and her doctor. The purpose of the visit was “to find out about a benign brain tumor a CAT scan had revealed a month ago.” Amy explains that despite the fact that her mother had spoken her best English to the doctor, “the hospital did not apologize when they said they had lost the CAT scan and she had come for nothing.” The author goes even further to describe the behavior of the hospital: … “they did not seem to have any sympathy when she told them she was anxious to know the exact diagnosis, since her husband and son had both died of brain tumors.” It is almost as though the doctors don’t care about their own patient, because of their own biases towards Tan’s mother because she is an immigrant and she isn’t speaking perfect English. This all changed however when Tan herself called the hospital: “And when the doctor finally called her daughter, me, who spoke in perfect English — lo and behold — we had assurance that the CAT scan would be found, promises that a conference call on Monday would be held, and apologies for any suffering my mother gone through for a most regrettable mistake.” Suddenly, their behavior shifts completely when Amy Tan is on the phone. They treat her with respect, which they had denied her mother. What is so telling about this scene is the complete and utter disrespect and lack of care from a hospital to their patient because of their ethnicity: The doctor’s office claims that they lost the CAT scan. This disrespect has devastating consequences. One can only imagine what would happen if Amy Tan’s mother didn’t get the results of the CAT scan. The doctor at the hospital looks at Amy’s Chinese immigrant mom as inferior and not worthy of dignity and good care. This is not a singular case and it  happens all the time to immigrants of other nations, and people of color, but it was interesting for me to read about the discrimination faced by Chinese immigrants in America. In this case, Amy Tan’s mother can easily sue the hospital on the grounds of racial discrimination, but also on the grounds of medical malpractice.